Poly World: Family Album
by Bella Marie Whitlock
Summary: Part Two of the Poly World Trilogy. If you haven't read Poly World: Wolf Pack, start there!
1. 1989

**AN: Hi Again Folks! Glad you came back to check out Part Two of the Poly World Series!**

**Family Album is not going to be a fully fleshed-out story like Wolf Pack was. It's just a series of snapshots (or summaries) of the Blackswan family throughout the kids' growing up years.**

**Each chapter will have one POV character who will narrate, and each chapter will summarize one calendar year. That format will carry us right through the 1990s. Then the epilogue for Family Album will cover from the end of 1999 through to the beginning of 2003. **

**Then, Part Three (aka Poly World: Uniting the Alphas) will begin during the summer of 2003. It will be an actual story more like Wolf Pack was (although it might be a lot longer, who knows!)**

**Okay, so now that you know what you're in for, let's get crackin'!**

**Here comes Chapter One!**

* * *

**Chapter One: 1989**

**Sarah's POV**

Old Quil began to read:

_"Dear Chuck and Billy. Yes, I said 'Chuck' not 'Charlie'. Renée and Sarah, you gals can't get mad at a dead man, so ha, take that, neener-neener! Anyway, let's get serious now. I'm sure you both know me well enough to know I don't get serious very often. But if there is one thing I am very serious about, it's the well-being of my family. And honestly, Boys, I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have taking care of them than the two of you._

_"But before you go thinking this is some hokey arranged thing where the women don't have a say in the matter, I want to assure you that isn't the case. My gals and I talked about what would ever happen if I croaked. Where they'd go, what they'd do, if they'd remarry. So I know their wishes. Let's just face it, Boys. You two are chick magnets!_

_"Anyway, I know what I'm asking here is huge. Not only am I leaving two wives behind, but probably a handful of kids too. Heck, I've already got two and another on the way as I'm writing this. So I get it. You've got a lot to think about. But if you're reading this right now, I've already bit the big one, so you'd better get crackin'!_

_"Sincerely and with way more sappy, brotherly love than I'd care to admit, your brother in wolfiness, Harry Clearwater."_

It basically amounted to what we'd already anticipated his request would be. And our household had already talked about it before coming to the funeral. We'd thought the wild card in the whole thing would be Sue and June. We never anticipated Harry would have talked to them about his wishes ahead of time or that they themselves would wish this.

But really, it made sense. Sue had grown up spending a whole lot of time at the Blackswan house and I knew she and Charlie had been sweet on each other as kids. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if she had a crush on Billy too. And June was madly in love with Sue, so she would just be happy to go wherever Sue went and keep their family together.

"I hope you know you folks are not actually under any obligation to take us in. Merging two households would be...a challenge, at the best of times. But our children are grieving. So are we. This wouldn't be an easy transition," Sue warned us.

"Yes, and I'm sure Harry has told you, I am a handful." June shrugged chewing her lip.

"Pretty sure he meant it in the best way," Billy reassured her. "Harry loved you both more than anything."

"Yeah, but he _had _to love me, I was his Imprint." June worried.

"Oh, June, there is plenty about you worth loving, don't worry." Renée sighed, pulling her into a hug.

"You've come so far from the rambunctious, fickle little girl I used to know. You've grown in ways I never thought possible. You continued your studies and got your GED. You took the CNA correspondence course and got certified as a nursing assistant. You've been a tremendous help to Sue at the clinic.

"You became a mother! In your heart first, with Leah and Seth, and then physically, with your own pregnancy, having Julia. You learned to cook and clean and care for a home. You've helped others without being asked, babysitting for anyone who needed it, making meals to help out new mothers, donating your old clothes to charity, you've done _a lot_, Juniebug.

"And those are just the things you've _done_. You also _stopped doing_ all the destructive things you used to do. You quit smoking, you quit drinking excessively, you quit partying and sleeping around. You've really matured, June. And that isn't just lip service, it's the truth," Renée insisted.

June thought for a moment. "Yes, but how much of that did I do specifically for Harry because of the imprint? I'm worried that without him here to anchor me, I may go back to my old ways. I got very, very inebriated last night. More than I have in years!" She fretted.

Sue took June's hand in both of hers. "Harry might not be here to anchor you anymore, but I am. I promise I won't let you fall through the cracks, Juniper. And neither will these fine people," Sue added, gesturing around the room. "Even if the Blackswans decide not to take us in, they're still our friends and they'll help you, just like I will."

"Sue...look at me," I said, looking her straight in the eyes.

"No more of this 'If' business, okay? We _are _taking you in. Not because of some piece of paper or even because of what Harry wanted. We're going to do this because it is what we and what you want. We love you and we want you to come home with us, just as soon as you are ready, okay?" I assured her.

"You're sure? All of us?" Sue confirmed, putting her arm around June to make it clear they were a package deal.

"Yes. All of you. We wouldn't have it any other way," Charlie informed them.

"You hear that, Junie?" I heard Sue whisper. "They want us. I told you they'd want us, didn't I?"

* * *

"Well, I think that's the last of them," Sue said, referring to the final load of their boxes as we brought them into the house from Billy's old pick-up truck.

We had done a lot of work on the house to prepare for their arrival. We had moved our bedroom upstairs and shuffled the kids around. Previously we'd had one room for the toddlers and one room for the babies. But now that the kids were getting older and there would be more of them, there would be a girls' bedroom and a boys' bedroom which would both be in the basement along with a guest room.

The main floor would have two adult bedrooms because let's face it, you can't comfortably sleep six people in one king-size bed. So Sue and June would share a room, as would Renée and I, like we were accustomed to doing, and Charlie and Billy would go back and forth in between. Or at least, they would _eventually_, in theory. The girls were still mourning Harry, so there wouldn't be a rush on that.

And on the same floor as the adult bedrooms would also be the nursery so that any babies would be close at hand. Currently, that room would only house Baby Julia, but who knew if there would be more children in our future? Renée had recently gone off of birth control, so that was a distinct possibility.

I wasn't interested in another pregnancy at this point because I wanted to start getting back to my pre-babies figure. Now that we had two new wives in the house who were both also gorgeous, I wanted to look my best. Especially since one of them was Sue. She and I were good friends but we'd always had a healthy competition between us.

And ever since her hysterectomy, Sue had gone back to looking almost exactly as she had when she'd won Miss Indian World back in '83. The only difference was she now had the grace and poise she may have lacked in her younger days. Whereas myself...lately, I mostly just felt chubby and worn out.

And I knew Charlie and Billy still found me to be beautiful, they told me so all the time. But still, it couldn't hurt to take better care of myself by getting in shape and eating healthy.

"Great, let's get you girls unpacked then!" I smiled sincerely, watching as Sue took the last of her boxes to their new room.

June was already in there, laying on the bed. "June!" Sue scolded. "Why aren't you working?! Do you want the Blackswans to think you are lazy?"

I was going to tell Sue we wouldn't think that but she shook her head and mouthed _trust me_. I nodded, Sue knew June better than I did, so I needed to trust that she knew what she was doing.

"I'm just trying it out. Anytime I go to a new place, I like to picture myself in it, so I know what to expect." June shrugged.

"Oh, you do, do you? And just what are you picturing?" Sue teased her.

June's face turned beet red and she threw the pillow over her face. "None of your beeswax!" She shrieked, though it was muffled by the pillow.

Sue just laughed. "Welcome to Juneland. She's great in a _real_ crisis. But she _makes_ a crisis out of everything that isn't. And I think right now she's embarrassed because we caught her fantasizing about your husbands."

"Oh, is that all?" I grinned. "You needn't be embarrassed about that. They like it when we fantasize about them, trust me."

I picked up a box that said kitchen. "Sue and June, if you're okay here, I think I'll try to make myself useful and take the kitchen boxes downstairs and start putting away your kitchen things? You can rearrange them later if you'd like but we cleaned out a drawer and a cupboard for now and then anything we have duplicates of, the four of us can go through those later on and see which things we want to keep and have a yard sale with the leftovers if that works?" I suggested.

"Sounds great, Honey. I'll be out to help once I get this little thing calmed down." Sue winked.

I nodded and made myself scarce. I had a feeling I knew how she was going to 'calm June down' but that certainly was none of my business.

I got back to work and in no time at all, the kitchen was finished. And judging from the noises their bed was making upstairs, I was pretty sure I had guessed correctly.

* * *

"How do we look?" Billy asked Renée and me as we helped our boys get ready for their wedding to Sue and June, which was finally happening. It had been eight months since they had moved in with us. Things had been going well and progressing at a fairly steady pace since then.

I could still remember when Leah marched into the girls' bedroom and told the twins and Bella that she was going to be their older sister now and would try not to be too bossy as long as they let her pick the good bunk and didn't try to steal her boyfriend, Sam. It was a pretty adorable speech coming from a three-year-old.

Willie and George Charles had an easier time accepting Seth into their fold since they were pretty used to being bossed around by their sisters and as such, they tended to take a more laid back approach to things. And Seth was a little sweetheart. He had recently turned two but he was still small for his age since often preemies took a while to catch up. They almost always did catch up eventually though and Seth was certainly gaining ground. He'd be bigger than the other boys in due time, I was sure of it.

And then there was Baby Julia. She had been less than a month old when Harry died. This meant that, sadly, she would never remember him. Fortunately, the Clearwaters had filmed a lot of home movies that we could show her when she was older. But for all intents and purposes, Billy and Charlie would be the only fathers she'd ever know.

But Julia wouldn't be the youngest for long. Renée was pregnant again and would be due in January. Her ultrasound showed we were expecting a boy. And I had to wonder if June wouldn't end up in the same boat soon. She had confessed to us girls that she would really like to give Billy and Charlie children. Partly because she felt it would help to unite the two families as one, which was also one of the reasons they were having an official tribal wedding.

After the wedding, Sue and June and their kids would be changing their names in the tribal record to Clearwater Blackswan. No hyphen. They would probably eventually use the Clearwater part less and less, and June had decided any future children she had would just be Blackswans. But they wanted to honor Harry themselves and for his kids to honor him.

The boys had been very touched by it. They were grieving Harry just as much as his wives and kids were because their bond as pack brothers (and best friends) had been very strong. So much so that they were having a bit of a hard time truly bonding with Josh and Lucas. And with them living in town it was even harder.

They had tried mixing up their patrol shifts so that our boys overlapped with the Uley boys, but that didn't work out very well, because Josh and Lucas had a hard time controlling their thoughts, being newer wolves. And since both of them were having intimate relations with Emmie, that wasn't something Billy and Charlie really wanted to see through the mindlink. And then, when our boys' courtship with Sue and June became intimate, all of a sudden Josh and Lucas, as Sue's brothers, could understand how they felt because the shoe was on the other foot.

So they had started intentionally staggering their patrol shifts so that there wasn't a lot of overlap, which didn't allow for the same level of bonding through the mindlink that they'd been able to have with Harry.

But it wasn't as if our boys didn't have friends. My sister Jane had been babysitting for us for quite some time and her husband was Old Quil's son, Quil Ateara IV. They'd been having trouble getting pregnant though, and so this year, Jane had pushed Quil to take a second wife, Joy Quehpa.

When that happened, Quil had started coming to our boys for advice because he didn't have any other friends who had married under the tribal law. So they had been going fishing with him when he needed someone to talk to.

Also, Connie had recently married Kevin Littlesea and moved back to La Push because he had a house on the Rez. So she and Jennie had decided to sell the house they bought together if neither of them would be living in it. And since she'd been back, they had started coming over for barbecue quite often. Kevin got along really well with Charlie and Billy, and Connie had all kinds of juicy gossip from town. All of us girls were guilty of hanging on every word.

I was glad our boys still had lots of family and friends to be present for their special day. It was probably going to be pretty emotional. I'd even heard Harry's brother, Michael, and his sister, Elizabeth, would be there. Although, that probably had just as much to do with them wanting to see Thomas and Ellen as it did about supporting their sisters-in-law.

Thomas and Ellen, Sue's cousins (whom Joshua had grown up with and previously believed were his siblings) had, according to gossip from Connie, been seen on several double dates recently with Michael and Ellen, Harry's siblings.

It seemed that somewhere between Josh and Lukey's tribal wedding, Julia's birth, and Harry's funeral, the Uleys and Clearwaters had been thrust together for so many different family events, that after all that proximity, Michael had started courting Ellen and Thomas had been courting Elizabeth.

But whatever the motivation, it was good that Michael and Elizabeth would be there to see Sue and June marry Billy and Charlie. It would serve to reassure Harry's siblings that his wives and children would be well taken care of in his absence. Not that there was ever any doubt they would be, but still.

"You both look perfect." I smiled, straightening the belt that held Charlie's breechclout in place. "Now let's go get you boys married."

* * *

I will admit to having cried tears of happiness while watching the ceremony take place that served to make Sue and June part of our family officially in the eyes of the tribe.

Connie asked Renée and me later on at the reception if we found it odd watching our husbands marry other women. We told her that it wasn't odd so much as surreal. Renée and I knew that Charlie and Billy looked at us with just as much love and respect as they did Sue and June, if not more because we'd had years to build our relationship with them and we'd been through a lot together.

So it wasn't a bad experience for us that our men would be making room in their hearts to love their two new wives as well. It was just different. And Renée and I were in the unique position of having been through it already ourselves. So we would be well equipped to help Sue and June navigate the waters of their new marriage if ever they needed it.

And as time marched on, we found that our expertise was very helpful for June who didn't know her new husbands all that well yet.

Sue, on the other hand, didn't need our expertise. As much as she'd kept them at arm's length during her marriage to Harry, Sue (or Suzie as Charlie almost always called her) had grown up with our boys and as it turned out, in many ways, knew them even better than we did.

In fact, it ended up that we had more we could learn from her than we could teach her.

Especially because we hadn't realized how much of the time the imprint dynamic would cause the boys to humor us instead of arguing, even if they actually disagreed. But Sue would pick up on it and get on their case about it until they told us how they really felt. It was helping everyone to learn to communicate better.

By the time the fall birthdays rolled around, we had gotten into a pretty decent system with most things. Of course, there was still the occasional argument or disagreement, especially when it came down to parenting.

For one thing, Renée and I had a very hard time being strict with Leah. Her behavior at times was pretty awful, but our first instinct was to make allowances. After all, it had been less than a year since she'd witnessed her father's death at the hands of a vampire and watched all the men in her family burst into giant wolves. That had to take quite a toll on the developing psyche of a three-year-old.

But Sue reminded us that any preferential treatment we gave her, she would pick up on, and so would the other children. And that it was likely to result in her developing an inflated sense of entitlement and the other kids developing an inferiority complex. None of those were things we wanted, so with Sue's help, we learned to discipline her, even when our first instinct was to excuse her bad behavior.

And speaking of discipline, June was proving to be surprisingly helpful in that regard as well. The way she explained it, her parents had let her run wild, so much so that she struggled in social situations for a long time because she hadn't learned how to rein her emotions in until she was a mother herself since she hadn't had to as a child. So she was able to teach the children how to self-discipline because she'd had to learn how to do it herself.

She taught them that there was a tiny little moment when most people would realize for just a split second that they were being mean but that most of the time they barely noticed it and just ignored it. She explained that they could choose to stop and take a deep breath instead and think of something to say that wasn't hurtful. Frankly, that was a good lesson for us grown-ups too.

I knew exactly what she was talking about. Oftentimes, if I got a good mad on, I would yell at someone about something and for a second I would think 'oh! I'm yelling, I should stop,' but then I would remember that my feelings were hurt and I'd keep yelling until I finished my tirade. It didn't happen very often, I was a pretty calm person most of the time. But in the rare instance that I did blow up, I was basically Mount St. Helens.

Thanks to June's coping techniques, I had learned to take a moment before exploding and just breathe and think about what I wanted to say. Surprisingly, I found that what was manifesting itself as anger was usually actually something else. Like the time when Rachel walked in on Charlie and I mid-coitus and I yelled at her for not knocking. I wasn't actually angry at her, I was just embarrassed by it and feeling guilty for forgetting to lock the door.

That was also another thing we differed on. Our views on privacy. Sue and June had a habit of leaving their bedroom door open, regardless of what might be going on inside. And that was fine for them, but because _they_ didn't care much for privacy, they tended to forget that _we did_.

I'll never forget the day Renée and I were getting frisky and June walked in to ask a question about the washing machine. Renée was on top and June got quite an eyeful and commented with "Huh. I assumed your boobs would be a lot bigger." I seriously thought Renée was going to murder her right then and there.

Thankfully, however, even though 1989 was a year of drastic adjustment for all of us, we managed to make it through everything relatively unscathed. Including a very noisy, busy, boisterous Christmas with a house full of people and presents and food. But of course, that would have been the case even if Harry had still been alive to see it. It was bittersweet having Christmas without him, but we still managed to honor most of the Clearwater family traditions as well as our own which I know Sue and June appreciated.

And as we watched the ball drop on New Year's Eve, I was able to look back over the waning months with a reflective fondness. Things had gone pretty well thus far and I could only hope that 1990 would end up running just as smoothly.

* * *

**AN: Please, please, please review!**

**I'd like to know how many of those who read Part One are planning on sticking it out through the series.**

**And if you're new to the Poly World stories, welcome!**

**Blessings,**

**-BMW**


	2. 1990

**AN: Hello All!**

**Many thanks to WPear, catgrl, and twi nana, for reviewing Chapter One! Thanks to those who have started to read, follow, and fave this story.**

**Look out! Here comes the '90s!**

* * *

**Chapter Two: 1990**

**Renée's POV**

January 1990 dawned with me as big as a whale. I wasn't the only one either. Joy Ateara was due in January as well so I had been taking Lamaze classes with her as a refresher. It had been over two years since I'd had George Charles, and I knew I was a little rusty since my mind was mostly on toddlers and preschoolers lately and not as much on babies.

Speaking of preschoolers, Leah had her 4th birthday on the first Sunday of January, since her birthday was on a Tuesday this year. Poor little thing asked if someone would die if she had a party since it was less than two weeks after her birthday last year that Harry had been killed. We assured her that nothing bad was going to happen. I certainly hoped that was true. Being nine months pregnant was a terrible time to start thinking we were jinxed.

Although, I did start to wonder when Joy went into labor at Leah's party. She wasn't due until the end of January, so we were all a little concerned.

Quil was out on his fishing boat, since she wasn't due for a few weeks yet, so she asked me to come to the clinic to help her remember the Lamaze techniques since it was her first baby. So I drove her to the clinic in their car and Sarah was going to drive Jane to the clinic in ours once the party was over.

But it didn't quite go as planned, because the midwife at the clinic said the baby was breech and to take her to the hospital in Forks. So we drove there next and I guess the stress from worrying about Joy sent _me_ into labor as well. Which meant I had to resign myself to having my first ever hospital baby.

Thankfully, unlike Joy, I didn't need a c-section though. And by the time hers had been performed, our family had arrived to greet the Ateara's new baby, Quil Ateara V, who was born early that evening. My labor continued progressing normally throughout the night. So it wasn't until about fourteen hours after arriving at the hospital that I gave birth. Jacob Ephraim Blackswan was born the next morning, on January 8th.

After the whole fiasco with Joy's emergency c-section, I decided I was done having babies. Doctors had started performing c-sections much more frequently these days and now even midwives were recommending them. I didn't ever want anyone cutting me open. Especially not with a long recovery time and a nasty scar to show for it, no thank you. So, I talked to the boys and I went back on birth control. Which meant the only one of us Blackswan wives who was still open to having more babies was June.

And speaking of babies, on April 12th, Sam got a little brother, Atarik, when Allison gave birth to her second child. Emmie was still on birth control but she kept joking that whenever Allison decided to stop having babies, Emms would start.

LeeLee wasn't very happy about the new baby because he took even more of Sam's attention away from her. Sam hadn't been coming around to see Leah as much since she'd moved in with us, but I think that had more to do with what they had witnessed on the beach that fateful day than anything else.

Instead, he'd been staying in town more and playing with Jennie and Carl's girl, Angela. One day, I heard Leah call Angela a "little homewrecker" and threaten to "punch her lights out". When I demanded to know where she had learned such things, she told me she had heard it at playschool.

Needless to say, I marched my butt down to the playschool and asked just exactly what they had been teaching our little girl and the teacher, a young girl herself who was probably just out of high school, started crying and apologized saying that she'd said it to her husband's mistress over the telephone during playtime and she hadn't realized there were any children within earshot.

I told her I could understand, based on the circumstances but that if it happened again we'd have to find another playschool. It made me very grateful that _we_ never had to worry about _our_ men straying. I'd told Billy and Charlie in no uncertain terms that if they ever stepped out, I'd chop their balls right off. And it was a good thing I had, because my intuition told me, if we'd never had that little chat right off the bat, there might be a little love child out there somewhere by now.

But really, it wasn't as if we didn't keep our men _very_ satisfied in that department. Especially now that there were four of us. It was certainly a good thing our boys had supernatural stamina, that's for sure! Mind you, they were keeping us well satisfied too, none of us wives had any complaints in that department.

Anyway, in the spring, we all attended a shotgun wedding for Harry's brother, Michael, and Sue's cousin, Ellen, whose bun in the oven was due in July. Nowadays there was less urgency about such things since it wasn't as taboo as it used to be to have a baby out of wedlock. But it seemed important to them to be married. Little Clara Juli Clearwater was born July 15th, none the wiser.

Next, Thomas Uley and Elizabeth Clearwater made their way to the altar in the autumn, probably hoping to avoid the same predicament. Those two couples seemed to do everything together, so I wouldn't have been too surprised.

Oh yes, and speaking of pregnancies! June had announced hers a few weeks after her birthday over the summer, so by Christmas, she had a cute little round baby bump. Mind you, I was a little jealous of how trim a figure she managed to keep during her pregnancy. Whenever I was pregnant, I always ate everything in sight and after three pregnancies, I certainly had my work cut out for me with getting back into shape.

We bought tricycles for the kids for Christmas though, so that would hopefully give me more incentive to get fit. The children would be harder to chase around after once we put wheels under them.

Christmas this year was a very busy event indeed! With four four-year-olds, three three-year-olds, a two-year-old, and an eleven-month-old, and once you added in all of our extended family (Who had a total of five children between all of them and therefore must have thought we were crazy to have so many. Mind you, a lot of those couples were only newlyweds who had just begun growing their families.) we had a _very_ full house for the holidays!

We all had quite a good laugh when Leah kept chasing Sam around the house with a handful of mistletoe trying to get him to kiss her.

Of course, there was also a proper, hanging mistletoe that we were all very fanatical about. No ifs, ands, or buts, about it, if you met someone under the mistletoe, you had to kiss them. There were no exceptions. It hung in the doorway between the living room and kitchen so there was no escaping it. And the rule was, upon entering our home, you had to agree to abide by the mistletoe rule. Which meant no one could get their nose out of joint about who kissed whom.

Mistletoe had been a big tradition in my family growing up and so when June moved in, she insisted we pick the tradition back up again.

It made for some very interesting combinations. Especially once everyone was a little tipsy. And of course, June, our resident wild child took full advantage, practically stationing herself under the mistletoe whenever we weren't diligent about shooing her away.

Josh, who had a reputation of being quite a playboy in his younger days was super happy to have a legitimate excuse to kiss a pretty girl whom he normally wouldn't be allowed to kiss. So it wasn't too surprising when the food wasn't the only thing he came back later for seconds of.

Mind you, June wasn't the _only_ one who got kissed under the mistletoe. She was just the only one who did it _intentionally_. Most of us ended up under it accidentally, since the house was so full there wasn't much room to maneuver around. I ended up getting a nice kiss from Kevin, who promptly informed me that I tasted like cranberries.

The funniest thing though, was when Sue and Lucas ended up under the mistletoe and an argument ensued among the onlookers about whether they should be exempt from the rules as siblings. Someone suggested letting them kiss on the cheek, but then June argued that if the exception was made for them it could be made for anyone. So, eventually, a compromise was made for a closed mouth kiss on the lips which everyone seemed to agree on, and that would be the new minimum requirement going forward.

Fortunately, by some miracle, even though the house was packed with so many people...everyone stayed in good spirits throughout the holidays.

Maybe it was all the kissing!

* * *

**AN: As always, please review.**

**Quil V is the same appearance as canon: Tyson Houseman**

**Jacob "Jakey" Blackswan faceclaim: a young Douglas Booth**


	3. 1991

**Chapter Three: 1991**

**Charlie's POV**

Since I have been informed that very few people read the author's notes, I am going to speak to you in character as Charlie here, in the hopes you might actually listen to good ol' Chuckers, because this is really damned important, people.

BMW recently had to explain to someone who didn't understand the review process how extremely vital it is for authors on this site to receive feedback.

Fanfiction, from an author's perspective, is an excellent platform for authors to test their craft. If you don't bother to tell them what they are doing well or advise them on what they can do better, then you are defeating the entire purpose of them investing their time here. Reviews are why people like Bella Marie Whitlock and all of the wonderful authors around here do this. They want to learn and grow and improve their craft.

If an author spends hours of their time creating content for you, the reader, to enjoy...then the least you can do is let them know what they need to improve on and what parts you enjoyed.

When a hundred people read something and only ten respond, the author has no choice but to assume the silent ninety are staying silent because of the old adage "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." In other words, they assume you think they suck.

So, therefore, I, Charlie Blackswan am going to let you in on a little challenge here. For this chapter, whoever's review is the most detailed and highlights a few things that could be improved on as well as a few things you have enjoyed, the next Blackswan family baby will receive their middle name in your honor.

Thanks for listening! And Bella Marie Whitlock wants me to also thank twi nana and catgrl for their reviews last chapter and for being awesome and consistently reviewing! And everyone who follows and favorites because that makes a difference too. The point is, it's nice for these authors to feel appreciated and to know what you think of the story.

Speaking of the story, without further ado, let me tell you what us Blackswans have been up to in 1991!

The kids were growing so fast we could barely keep up. Leah (who only ever allowed Sam to call her LeeLee anymore) turned five in January. She was getting to be quite the little firecracker. She would make up games and tell the other kids how to play them and then get mad if they broke her rules. But usually, the rules seemed to change according to her moods.

She had tried to convince us she was ready to start kindergarten when she was only four because she would have her birthday partway through the school year. But we decided that she had enough of a tendency to be bossy that we didn't want her to be a whole grade ahead of the others. So she was reluctantly waiting until RaeRae and Becks and Willie could all start in September.

But before they could become kindergarteners, they all got another present first. A new little sister. June gave birth to Suzanne Juniper Blackswan on March 16th. Unlike Jakey, Baby Suzie was able to be born at the tribal clinic and was delivered by her eponym.

Less than a month later, on April 18th, Baby Suzie got a little playmate when Harry's brother Michael and his wife had their second baby, Edmond Levi Clearwater. Their little Clara was thrilled to have a baby brother. At least...she was for about a month. Until her aunt Elizabeth, Harry's sister, gave birth to hers and Thomas' first baby, Harold Michael Uley.

Little Clara was so awestruck by her baby cousin that she promptly forgot her baby brother even existed. And when Baby Harold was born, Sue and June were thrilled that Harry had a namesake. Especially since Suzie had been a girl. June was planning on naming our next boy Henry, after Harry as well. And by June's birthday, she was happy to report that he would be due to arrive in February.

Over the summer, we decided to be brave and pile the kids into two cars and attempt to take a family camping trip. It was...hectic at best, chaotic at worst. Fortunately, we only planned a three-day trip. It rained all three days, as was common for the Olympic Peninsula. Each day, at least one kid tumbled into the creek. The creek was surrounded by tall grasses which made it very hard to see the water until you were right in it. So once all of the short people started running around, it was pretty inevitable.

Leah fell in on the first day. Then Bella took the tumble on the morning of day two, followed by Becks in the afternoon. The last day was Willie's turn. Thankfully, we'd brought more than enough clothes for the kids and it wasn't a very deep creek, but still. It happened so many times we had gotten a pretty good system down for wet kid clean up by the third day.

Rachel, George, and Seth were the only kids of the older bunch who didn't fall in. But that was because they had made a little secret clubhouse in the bushes and refused to let any of the other kids in.

We weren't too sure what was so exciting about sitting in the wet dirt in the middle of a scratchy old bush that didn't even have any berries on it. But then, on our final once-over of the campground before heading for home, I went out to the clubhouse bush and found the leftover mistletoe from Christmas. Between that and all of the tumbling into moving water, we decided to keep a bit of a closer eye on all of the kids, as a general rule.

As the fall birthdays rolled around, Leah, RaeRae, Becks, and Willie all got geared up for starting kindergarten. They were excited to get their own little backpacks with their supplies in them and pick out some new "big kid clothes". And the four-year-olds were, for the most part, happy to be going to preschool, even if they wished they could be with the big kids in kindergarten.

Seth and George Charles seemed to have an especially difficult time saying bye-bye to Rachel. But Bella, in particular, seemed particularly pleased to get out from under the thumb of her older sisters. She was very strong-willed and didn't like being told what to do. All of our girls were sort of like that, to one extent or another. It was probably one of the main reasons our boys tended to be more reserved.

They weren't very reserved at Christmastime though. All of the kids tended to be bouncing off the walls through all of December. Julia, as the only one with a birthday in the lead up prior to Chrisrmas, tended to get a bit overshadowed during the holidays. So this year, for her third birthday, we decided December 18th would be dubbed Julia Day and no one in the family was allowed to play Christmas music or even talk about Christmas in front of Julia.

She really seemed to appreciate the extra attention this allowed for and paraded around all day in her princess dress, waving her magic wand at people and turning them into "daisies" and telling them they had to "think flower thoughts" whatever that meant.

We had a pretty full house again for the holidays, with one notable exception. Nora and Malcolm had declined our invitation this year. They would be taking a skiing holiday with his parents while they were still active enough to do so. But I think partly, they just didn't want to be around all the children.

Nora had found out she was unable to have children and Malcolm was opposed to adoption, so they would probably never have kids. It made it especially hard for them to be around at Christmas, and I had a feeling we would see even less of them as the years progressed. It was sad, but there was nothing we could do about it.

Especially since someone around here was usually pregnant and obviously showing over the holidays. This year it was June, who was almost eight months along with Henry, but we also found that Thomas and Elizabeth would be having a brother for Harold in the summer.

We were a little surprised when June's New Years' resolution was to go back on birth control after Henry, but it made sense. He would be our eleventh child, and even though we had several income streams now, it was still a rather large family to support.

Besides, as June put it, all of the other wives were getting their figures back and she was "sick of feeling frumpy". We told her it was a gorgeous kind of frumpy, but she didn't think that was nearly as amusing as we did.

Everyone else's New Year's resolutions were pretty standard. Get in shape, make more money, spend more time with friends, etc. But for me? Harry's death had made me a bit of a pessimist. So mine was just to get through another year without anybody dying.

Of course, I would soon learn that the ancestors had other plans.


	4. 1992

**AN: Hi All!**

**Thanks for putting up with yet another one of my soapbox rants last chapter! Y'all are good people, that is for sure! :-***

**Thanks especially for the great reviews last chapter! WPear, twi nana, catgrl, garose35, and souvikkundu0017, y'all amaze me with your kindness! The review contest was super close, but I'm giving the award to garose35 for their lengthy, detailed review, and because Henry Garrett Blackswan sounds like a cool dude!**

***Two canon-ish character deaths mentioned in this one, but I think we were expecting them.***

* * *

**Chapter Four: 1992**

**Billy's POV**

Well, 1992 got off to a decent start. And good became great on Valentine's Day, February 14th, when we welcomed our youngest child, Henry Garrett Blackswan, into the world. June was tired but elated upon his arrival.

And Henry was a good note to finish off on when it came to building our family because he was a very easy baby indeed. He rarely cried, and when he did it was easy to tell what he wanted. He had a squeaky cry and a squawky cry. One meant hungry and the other meant dirty. The rest of the time he was pretty content.

But it was a good thing that Henry was an easy newborn because we got pretty distracted shortly after he came into the world, as we prepared to say goodbye to a wonderful soul who would be going out of it.

Our dad, Geoffrey, had a massive stroke three days after Henry was born. The doctors informed us that he would probably never recover.

Charlie was a wreck. He might have been William's kid biologically, but he was Geoffrey's son in every other way. He refused to leave the hospital and when he wasn't there, he was with Mom at the nursing home, keeping her informed on his condition, even though she often forgot right away and he would have to tell her multiple times.

Everyone rallied around our family, just as they had when we lost my Mom and Dad a few years prior. There were many people offering to babysit and making meals and tending our garden and other things so that our wives had more time to be at the hospital. Nearly everyone came out to show their support.

Our sister, Nora, on the other hand, never even tried to fly home to say goodbye. She said it was because her husband, Malcolm Cumberland, was away on business and she was scared to fly on her own. But I knew Nora well enough to know that it wasn't about that. If we hadn't had a three-day-old baby, she would have moved heaven and earth to come. But Nora never did do well with adversity, especially her own. I had to wonder if she'd ever be brave enough to come back home again. Maybe not.

Infertility was a hard pill to swallow and unlike Sarah's sister, Jane, Nora wasn't about to go out and find her husband a second wife. She could never live that way. Nora had never played all that well with others.

But our sister, Jennie and her husband, Carl Weber came right away as soon as they heard. Pastor Carl prayed over Dad constantly, asking God to give him peace with no pain or suffering. And Jennie told Dad that she was pregnant with twins and that he would have two more grandbabies arriving in October. She explained to us that they would have told us sooner but had planned on waiting until her first trimester was over since things sometimes happened with twins.

Our sister, Connie and her husband, Kevin Littlesea, showed up and of course, our sister, Emmie came, bringing our pack brothers Josh and Lucas and their other wife, Allison. I knew it must've sucked a lot for Josh and Lucas. They had become wolves essentially as a result of Harry's death and had seen a barrage of our memories of him through the mindlink ever since and he was their brother-in-law.

And now, they would inevitably be subjected to our memories of Geoffrey, who was also their father-in-law. Sometimes it seemed like being a wolf meant there was no escaping grief.

But at least, there were some joyful events mixed in with the grieving. On June 24th, Thomas and Elizabeth Uley welcomed a younger brother for Harold. Allen Joshua Uley was a nice bright spot in an otherwise bleak summer.

It was our firm belief that Helen simply missed Geoffrey more than she could handle, because Mom passed away in her sleep, on August 4th, at the nursing home. Her funeral service was beautiful, just as Dad's had been. It was hard to be too sad that they were gone though, not when we knew what a happy reunion they must have been having in the afterlife with William and Judith.

And their memory would certainly live on. The Blackswans had always been big on home movies. We had rolls and rolls of film from our growing up years, and even though we hadn't watched most of those reels in a very long time, we planned on subjecting all of our kids to them, once they were all old enough to remember.

We were constantly making new home movies to add to the old ones. The camcorder came out at every birthday party and Christmas, and whenever anyone had a new baby we got to meet. Like on October 12th when Isaac and Joshua were born to Jennie and Carl. Their girl, Angela, was thrilled to get two new brothers to dote on.

And once Angela had less time to play with Sam, he started coming around to see Leah more often, so she was thrilled about that. She asked Sam: "Am I still your girlfriend?" and he said "Of course you are, but Angela is too." and Leah seemed to think about that for a moment and then said: "Okay, but make sure she knows she can't hog you. She has to share nicely." So it seemed like their young love was off to a decent start.

And of course, most of the kids were back to school in the fall, with the oldest set starting first grade, and the others all falling in behind them. Julia was thrilled to be starting playschool. That teacher was still a flake but at least she'd been more careful to keep her man troubles out of the classroom ever since that incident with Leah a couple of years back.

I was still concerned that we might need to switch preschools, especially since it was Julia attending this time. Julia was a tender little soul and a crier. She was the type of kid who had a lot of empathy. If she herself got hurt, she wouldn't make a peep. But if one of her brothers and sisters got hurt, she would cry right from the time they fell down, straight through until the band-aid was applied and they were "all better".

But since there had been no incidents recently, the girls said we had to let her stay there. I figured it was only a matter of time before my daughter came home crying, but hey, what did I know?

Anyway, after we got through all the fall birthdays it was time for yet another crazy holiday season. The kids were starting to care a little too much about presents though, making long exhaustive lists to Santa about all the things they wanted. They had no shortage of imagination, at least. From Julia's request for a real live magical unicorn that she could ride and who could turn rainbow colors on demand, to Seth's request for a giant flying robot who could put out forest fires.

We knew we needed to rein them in though, if we didn't want to raise a bunch of materialistic consumers, so we planned a field trip. We made an appointment for the whole family to volunteer at a soup kitchen in Seattle. We left the smaller kids with a sitter, of course, including Julia who would have been so sad for the homeless people she would have just cried the whole time.

But all of the other school-aged children came with us, and we helped them ladle out soup and told them to smile and use their manners. So they smiled and every time someone said thank you, they remembered to say "you're welcome".

On the car ride home, we talked about all the kids we had seen there. They were surprised and upset to learn that those kids probably wouldn't get much in the way of presents and the only tree they would have was the one at the shelter.

Each of the kids surprised and impressed us by offering to give their presents to the kids at the shelter.

Leah said a lot of the kids down there "looked grumpy" and she hoped that would help. We had been working on getting Leah to smile more because she often looked grumpy herself, so I guess she was taking to heart the importance of not being a sourpuss.

Rachel said she didn't care about toys when there were kids who didn't even get any, and Becks said she'd be happy to have more time to climb trees and play outside instead of playing with toys.

Willie said the only thing he wanted was a violin anyway, and we'd already told him he could have one on his next birthday since it was a more expensive item. So he was content to give up the remote control car and the dinosaur figurines he would have been getting.

Bella went one step further and asked if she could donate some of her other toys as well and the clothes she wasn't wearing much. And when all the other kids heard that, they upped the ante as well.

When we got home, we all expected Julia to burst out crying when she found out the older kids were getting rid of their toys and refusing to accept presents, but George Charles sat down with her and the other little kids and explained what it was like at the homeless shelter.

Julia cried and cried until a miraculous thing happened. When he told her that all the other kids were giving away their presents and toys...instead of getting more upset, her eyes lit up and she ran to her toy box and carried the whole box out to the living room all by herself.

She set it down proudly and said "They tan have dem all. I take vewy good care of my toys! Dey tan wrap dem all and put dem unda da big twee at da shewter!"

And that's when it dawned on us how to get Julia to cry less. After that point, whenever a kid fell down, we let Julia clean their owwie herself and put the band-aid on. Unless it was a bigger injury and then we would get her to grab them a lollypop and hold their hand while a grown-up did the first aid.

It wasn't just _seeing_ others hurting that made her cry, it was not being able to do anything about it. She didn't like feeling helpless. And really, did any of us?

When Christmas came around, the kids in our extended family were pretty shocked to see that none of our kids had presents under the tree. But when they learned why, some of the older ones, like Sam and Angela asked their parents if they could do the same thing next year.

Carl, being a preacher, thought that was an amazing idea and offered to get a list by then of all the families in the Forks area who were in need and suggested we do the same for the families in La Push that we knew of because as he recommended, charity starts at home, and once our local community was taken care of we could branch out from there. He also gave us a list of all the church clothing drives which they held at least four times a year.

And after the amazing meal we had for Christmas dinner, he asked if we wanted him to take the leftovers to one of the families in town that were having an especially hard time because they had six kids and no savings and the dad got laid off in October and hadn't found work yet.

I asked what line of work he was in and when Charlie found out the man was a roofer, he was elated. The tribal hall needed its roof replaced soon and while we did have quite a good group of construction guys on the Rez, we didn't have anyone who specialized in roofing. It was a big building and it was going to be a big job.

Of course, it couldn't be started until the weather improved because it was still below freezing overnight, but Charlie offered that in the meantime, he would pay the man to train our local construction guys on how to do it so that when they started the project, everyone would be on the same page.

The man, whose name was Griff, thought that was far too generous until Charlie showed him how much the tribe would save by not having to hire some bigshot contractor for the project, and how having our guys get the training they needed now would save even money down the line and provide our guys with more opportunities as well, so it was a win-win.

Christmas night, after everyone left, we always hustled to get the Christmas decorations down so that on the 26th when George Charles woke up, we could focus on his birthday. This year he would be turning five and what he wanted most was to have his own lemonade stand.

So Charlie and I had built him one out of wood and Sarah as our resident artist had painted it. Renée sewed decorative curtains for it, and Sue put together a little spiral-bound, laminated cookbook with easy homemade lemonade recipes and a few basic ones for cookies and other treats that she could help him make and serve to his customers.

He absolutely loved it and promised to start practicing his recipes right away. He also asked if he could hire Rachel and Seth as his "employees" which I think was mostly just an excuse to spend more time with them.

Rachel insisted on calling herself "head of creative" which turned out to mean that she would come up with ideas and pout until George Charles agreed to implement them. And Seth asked if he could be the dishwasher because he liked things to be clean and enjoyed playing in the bubbles.

And the rest of the kids were happy when they started being able to use their allowance money to buy juice and cookies from George Charles. I didn't have the heart to tell him that his cookies were a little too crunchy and his juice was a little too sweet, but the kids seemed to enjoy it, so who was I to criticize? Besides, I knew Sue would get him on the right track after a little more practice.

All in all, I was really impressed with how far our kids had progressed over the year. Even the little ones, Jakey and the Irish twins were hitting milestones left and right.

Our family had a lot to be proud of.

* * *

**AN: For those who don't know, Irish twins is an outdated, politically incorrect term for kids born to the same mother within a twelve-month period, that's why I had Billy use it here, to illustrate that Suzie and Henry are only about 11 months apart (no wonder June is done with having babies!). Apologies to anyone who may have been offended. It won't be used again.**

**Got behind on my faceclaims last chapter so let's catch up now!**

**Suzie's faceclaim: Barbara Palvin**

**Henry's faceclaim: Aiden Andrews**

**(June is blonde so her three kids are fairer than the others)**

**I have the ones for the Uley kids etc. as well, if anyone wants them now. Otherwise, I'll just publish a full list of all the Quileute kids at the end of Family Album :D**


	5. 1993

**AN: Hi All!**

**Thanks to all who read, follow, and fave! Special thanks to, WPear, twi nana, catgrl, and Lovely Black Butterfly, for reviewing!**

**You are all so very awesome, so I won't keep you waiting for even one more moment.**

**Hugs and Blessings,**

**S.G.**

* * *

**Chapter Five: 1993**

**Sue's POV**

The year began with a party for Leah's 7th birthday, as it usually did. She always loved being older than all the other kids for the first few months of the year until the others started having their birthdays and catching up to her.

But, at least she wasn't fixated on gifts this year since all the kids had stopped asking for presents after visiting the homeless at Christmas. Instead, she was fixated on the food. She had insisted on planning the menu for the party herself. According to her distinguished tastes, we needed to have pizza because it was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed party.

I wasn't sure of the significance, having never seen the show myself, but enough of the kids seemed to agree with her that I assumed she was correct about the pizza. The cake made a lot less sense though. She wanted the entire iced surface of the cake to be coated in Lucky Charms marshmallows. Not the cereal, just the marshmallows.

I explained to her that if we took all of the marshmallows out of the cereal and put them on her cake, she would have to eat the cereal by itself without marshmallows in it for a long, long time and so would all of the other children.

So she went around trying to convince all the other children to get on board with her plan to give up their marshmallows to be used on the cake. She had a few of them convinced until she got to Bella.

Bella put her hands on her little hips and stared her down. "It's not fair making everybody do what you want, even if they don't want to. Jakey and Henry love their marshmallows, they shouldn't have to give them up to make you happy. You got birthday money from Nana Marie, I know you did. Use _that_ for your marshmallows and leave us out of it, please."

And Leah, being unable to come up with a good retort to match her rebuke said, "Oh yeah? Well...you're a big spoilsport!" and stormed off.

But when we saw how happy the boys were about not having to give up their marshmallows, it was hard to feel too badly for her. And after about an hour or so, Leah came meekly up to Sarah and me and said, "Moms...I want to use my birthday money from Nana Marie to buy enough Lucky Charms for the marshmallows for my cake. That way, all the other kids can have their cake _and_ eat their marshmallows too."

She never acknowledged that it was Bella's idea, but she did ask Bella to help her blow up balloons for the party, so clearly there were no hard feelings. In fact, Leah seemed to respect Bella more for standing up to her and sticking up for the other kids. They seemed closer after that day.

Whereas previously, Bella, being younger than Leah and the twins had sometimes had to fight for her spot among the big girls, it appeared she had secured a place among them going forward.

And the pizza and marshmallow cake proved to be a huge success! All of the kids were thrilled with Leah's menu. They were also thrilled with the piñata she had asked for in lieu of presents. It had an assortment of candies and trinkets inside which the kids could collect after beating the stuffing out of it. It seemed like a violent game for my tastes but the kids seemed to think it was great fun.

And anyone who would have normally brought a gift for Leah was encouraged to take one down to a local shelter instead for a child there who would have their birthday in January. So the kids in our house wouldn't be the only ones who got to enjoy the fruits of Leah's party, which was great.

At the end, when the other children went home, they all received a grab bag of small treasures we'd picked up at the dollar store in Port Angeles. Pencils, erasers, light-up pens, ring pops, stickers, notepads, and koosh balls were happily received in decorated paper bags our kids had made at craft time over the holiday school break.

Our kids all refused to take grab bags for themselves, but we insisted they each choose one item to keep and we took the rest down to the shelter with the other presents.

The party was a hit. Afterward, we asked Leah if there was anything she would change. She said that while she had enjoyed the marshmallow cake, she wouldn't do it again and in hindsight, she clearly felt there were better things she could have spent her money from Nana Marie on.

Little did she know that the ten dollars each of the children received from Nana Marie on each of their birthdays was only ten percent of the total and the rest was being kept in a bank account, gaining interest, along with the sale from the house after Harry's passing, so they could use it for their education one day. Their Christmas money always went the same way.

They certainly didn't each need a hundred dollars to spend at every holiday and birthday. It was better that they have it available to spend once they were old enough to make wise choices, such as not blowing it all on marshmallows for instance. Though I had to admit, the cake _was _really tasty!

After Leah, the next birthday party we hosted was for Henry's first birthday, on Valentine's day. It was mostly an opportunity for the grown-ups to ooh and ahh over him and take lots of pictures and socialize while the kids played.

Henry was starting to toddle, so he had fun trying to chase after all the bigger kids even though they never stayed in one place long enough for him to catch them. He was good-natured and wouldn't get frustrated about it like some of the others had at his age, which was good.

The next exciting event happened in March, when Jane Ateara (nee Wilde), Sarah's sister, finally got her wish to have a child of her own.

Their family already had one child. Jane's husband, Quil IV, had a son, Quil V, with his other wife, Joy. But this was a first pregnancy for Jane, who had feared she wouldn't conceive at all. So on March 5th, when little Molly Mae Ateara came into the world, it was quite the celebration for their family.

And then, on June 4th (June's birthday), our kids got another first-cousin when Connie and her husband, Kevin Littlesea brought a son, Collin, into the world. Collin was their first and probably only baby. Connie was painfully nauseous her entire pregnancy and could barely keep food down.

The doctors had been worried she wasn't gaining enough weight, and sure enough, Collin was underweight at birth, coming in at just barely 5lbs in spite of being full-term, though there were thankfully no other complications.

Later in June, the Uley family brought two healthy little girls into the world, when our sister-in-law, Emmie, gave birth to twins! My brothers, Josh and Lucas, were thrilled to have two baby daughters, after having only sons by Allison. And Sam and Atarik were happy to get two little sisters.

Mira, the eldest twin, was born first by 36 minutes, followed by Emery. As fraternal twins, they each had their own distinct look, even for newborns. But they were similar in a lot of their features. It was hard to tell whether they looked like Josh or Lucas. My brothers shared similarities in their looks, so the paternity there was just as ambiguous as it was with most of our kids. Not that it really mattered.

Now that most of our family had added more children into the mix, we decided we would start renting the tribal hall on Christmas Eve to have a potluck with all our extended family and friends. After all, it would have been a tight squeeze to fit twenty-five children and twenty-one adults into our house for a meal.

So this way, we could still see everyone over the holidays but we would also be able to have a more relaxed Christmas Day dinner with just our immediate family and not have to entertain. It was the best of both worlds.

And the format seemed to work out pretty well. We had our big potluck in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve so that afterward, we could take presents and leftovers to those in need, like we did the year before.

Christmas morning, the kids opened their stockings, and then Chuck, which I like to call him in honor of Harry sometimes (and I feel like I can get away with it because he is the one person who still calls me Suzie which he only does to make me blush), and Billy, took the kids down to the hospital in Forks for the afternoon while us wives cooked dinner for the family.

The kids put on a puppet show (which Rachel organized) for the sick kids who had to be there over Christmas. From all accounts, it went very well and a good time was had by all.

Dinner went wonderfully, also, and we decided to keep the leftovers for easy lunches for the week since we had already donated the leftovers from the potluck. Sometimes it was nice to have a treat for ourselves too.

Speaking of treats, we started a fun new tradition for New Years'. We rang in the New Year by staying up playing board games as a family and eating fondue. The kids were getting old enough now that most of them could understand simple games like Trouble, Snakes and Ladders, and Checkers, so we played all night and then blew noisemakers at midnight and let all the kids yell Happy New Year as loud as they wanted.

Charlie and Billy said afterward that it hurt their supernatural hearing, but they were good-natured about it.

Our family was always changing, with new exciting things on the horizon, so I had to admit, I was eager to see what the new year would bring.

* * *

**AN: All of the extended family kids are born now, so there will be no new births in this installment.**

**Also, I just realized there are a few of the major characters in this who existed in canon but never actually had faceclaims, and you might want to know how I envision them. I should have done these waaay sooner since by now you probably have preconceived ideas that may contradict them, oops. So I may eventually go back and add them in where the characters were first introduced since that would be better. But for now, I'll put them here:**

**Sarah: Roseanne Supernault**

**Josh: Adam Beach**

**Lucas: Martin Sensmeier**

**As always, love to hear your feedback!**


	6. 1994

**AN: Hi All! Now that we're through all the births, the next few chapters will be shorter because I really want to get started on the sequel before I lose my enthusiasm!**

**I know I need to get better at explaining things, so even though they'll be shorter, I'll try to keep enough detail to help with the confusion :D**

**Huge thanks to, griezz, catgrl, and twi nana, for reviewing last chapter! Thanks also to all who read, fave, and follow this story!**

**Here's 1994 for ya!**

* * *

**Chapter Six: 1994**

**June's POV**

1994 was a banner year.

Leah turned eight and started thinking she was a grown-up. She decided she enjoyed helping us put the younger kids to bed and thought it meant she should get to stay up an hour later than the others.

And every so often she would try to convince us to let her spend weekends at Sam's house in town. We, of course, told her that was ridiculous and that she needed to be at home with her family. She's stubborn though and will probably keep trying until she eventually gets her way.

The next birthday in our immediate family didn't actually happen at our house. Jakey and Quil were born a day apart (January 7th & 8th), so they have always had their birthdays together as a joint party. And Joy and Jane always insisted on hosting because we had so many kids and they only had two. The boys turned four this year with a dinosaur themed party complete with blue and green swirl cupcakes and pin the tail on the T-Rex.

It was really good that they were willing to take care of that for us. Usually, Sue and I hold it together until after Leah's birthday and then we're generally an emotional wreck for most of January, since January 12th is the anniversary of Harry's death. I always curl up in a ball for a couple of weeks and Sue isn't much better. But our family is super supportive and they know better than to expect much of us during that time.

Anyway, by February, we were usually (at least mostly) alive again. This year, Henry turned two on Valentine's Day. The other kids started calling it Kiss The Baby Day because Henry was the youngest and Valentine's Day, in their estimation, was for kissing. Poor thing didn't seem to mind getting smothered with kisses, but we'd see whether that still held true when he got older.

The next party the Atearas hosted was for their Molly Mae who turned one year old on March 5th, which helped Charlie and Billy take their minds off the anniversary of Geoffrey's passing on March 6th. The Atearas seemed to always be helping us out in that way.

After that came Little Suzie's third birthday on March 16th. And Jakey, having just graduated from being three himself, had all kinds of advice for her about what being three would be like.

He even managed to get her excited about wearing "big girl panties" which was good because she had been pretty disinterested in potty-training until that conversation. But as soon as she learned she could get Showtoons underwear with Minnie Mouse on them, she was totally sold.

Next, Josh and Lucas's boy, Atarik, turned four on April 12th, followed by Harry's nephew, Edmond, (Harry's brother Michael's boy) who was turning three on April 18th.

Joshua was raised with Ellen (Michael's wife) and her brother, Thomas. He grew up as their sibling, even though they were actually cousins. But they had remained close, so the Uleys decided to have a combined birthday party for Atarik and Edmond, who were cousins, just as we did for Jakey and Quil.

It was a nice party even though the food was crap because Emmie and Allison were terrible cooks. I was pretty sure Ellen would offer to host it next year to spare everyone from having to eat their soggy sandwiches and burnt hotdogs. At least the Smurfs cake was store-bought so it was pretty decent.

The next birthday after that was Thomas and Elizabeth's oldest boy, Harold, who turned three on May 21st. They weren't big on parties though, so we just sent a card.

Then in June, My birthday was on the 4th and Seth's was on the 5th. We used to always have separate parties because kids and adults don't always agree on what makes a good party.

But this time, my birthday was on a Saturday, and the Littleseas, Kevin and Connie, were having a first birthday party for their son, Collin, whose birthday was also June 4th. And we couldn't miss their party, especially Billy and Charlie, because Connie was their sister. So we decided to have a combined party for Seth and me on Sunday the 5th, Seth's birthday.

I was turning twenty-two and Seth was turning seven. Finding a balance between the two proved to be a little tricky, but we were able to agree on an Aladdin themed party because I loved the soundtrack and he loved the characters. Of course, Charlie and Billy, being horndogs, insisted that I dress up as Jasmine, and who was I to disappoint?

Sue made the costume, which was pretty skimpy and see-through but I wore a teal bikini underneath. It was actually surprisingly comfortable though and our men were impressed, so I wasn't complaining.

Seth was thrilled when we borrowed a real live monkey from someone in town who had a pet one to play Abu. We didn't dress him up though because he tried to bite me when I tried to put a fez on him. Silly monkey. Never doing _that_ again.

Then in July, the Uleys had another joint birthday, since they had caught on to how much cheaper it was to do so. Clara, (Harry's niece) who was Edmond's older sister, had her fourth birthday on July 15th. And Sam, who was Josh and Lucas's oldest, had his eighth birthday on July 22nd.

Their party was a little odd because they each got to pick a part of the theme. Sam got to pick the character theme and Clara got to pick the color theme. So they had a pink and purple Batman party. I loved it, personally, and I think they pulled it off pretty well.

August 20th was RaeRae and Becks' eighth birthday, which served to pull Charlie and Billy out of their funk (due to the anniversary of Helen's passing on August 4th).

The twins had a hard time agreeing on a theme and briefly tried to convince us they should get two separate parties, but I was like, "Ladies, you shared a womb with each other for nine months, I think you can successfully share a party."

So they did. And they chose the new movie The Lion King, which we had all gone to see over the summer, and it was awesome!

Next was Bella's seventh birthday on September 4th. She wanted to rent a pony for her party. When we told her it was too expensive, she said "No, you don't have to pay for it, see? Look!" and handed us her piggy bank.

She had been saving all of her Nana Marie money and her allowances and had not spent any of it in years. She had ninety dollars saved up and when we found someone in the phone book who had a pony that he rented out for rides, he said he'd give us an hour for seventy dollars if we recommended him to our friends. And once he found out that Billy did repairs out of our garage, he said he would give us _three_ hours of pony rides for the price of one, if Billy fixed his motorbike for him.

So Bella was getting a pony ride and we didn't even have to spend a dime. Her popularity instantly shot through the roof once all of the other kids realized she paid for a pony so that everyone could have rides at her party.

Willie, in recent years, had to share his birthday, October 12th, with his cousins, Isaac and Joshua Weber. But since their birthday fell on a Wednesday, we had Willie's party on the weekend before and they had their party on the weekend after.

We couldn't have very easily done a combined party, even if we wanted to. Billy and Charlie's sister, Jennie, and her husband, Lutheran pastor Carl Weber, had a lot of friends in Forks, between their church friends, Jennie's co-workers from the hospital, their neighbors, etc. So they decided to rent a community hall in town for their twins' second birthday.

And Willie, who was turning eight, was thrilled to not have to share, having heard from Sam and Seth that sharing your birthday wasn't very fun. Instead, he got to have an outer space party which he was very excited about. The cake was shaped like a rocket and we had the party after dark so the kids could stargaze using the telescope we had bought second-hand a few years back as a splurge.

And, of course, the next birthday after that was Julia Day on December 18th. Our little princess loved milking that for all it was worth. She insisted that everyone dress like a prince or princess for her party and we had to get little tiaras and crowns from the dollar store for all the guests. The cake was shaped like Cinderella's carriage, and the punch was served in children's plastic teacups.

We were all glad that George Charles' birthday was the last party of the year, on December 26th, because he was very easy to please. He just wanted to have a campfire in the backyard and asked Uncle Josh to bring his guitar for a sing-along. We had hot dogs and s'mores and bundled up in blankets and just hung out. It was a nice way to wind down from a busy, bustling year.

I didn't know what next year would be like, but we had an awesome family, great kids, fun friends, and a really wonderful community. And even though he was no longer with us, I owed it all to Harry. If I had never become his Imprint, I never would have found the life I had here.

I still miss that man, so damn much.

* * *

**AN: As always, I love to hear from you! Good, bad, whatever you've got!**


	7. 1995

**AN: Hi All!**

**Thanks muchly to those who read, fave, and follow! Special thanks to the reviewers for last chapter! WPear, twi nana, and catgrl!**

**Now this is a very different style of glimpse because the Blackswans aren't really in it. I wanted to give our Forks wolves, the Uley boys a chance to have their say, so this chapter is Josh and next chapter is Lucas.**

**Also a bit of backstory in this one of how they came together. And I wouldn't say there is a lemon, per se, but sort of. So let's call it a key lime, because it's tiny!**

* * *

**Chapter Seven: 1995**

**Josh's POV**

My house was always a little chaotic. Four kids and four adults was one thing, but our place was also a hub for our family and friends in Forks to gather.

The Webers were over all the time because Sam and Angela had become just as inseparable as Sam and Leah, if not moreso. And their twins, Isaac and Joshua (who was named after me because I ended up driving Jennie to the hospital while she was in labor) were close in age to our twins, Mira and Emery.

Our son, Atarik, always seemed a bit left out when they were over though because Jennie and Carl didn't have any kids his age. He was too old to play with the toddlers and too young to play with the big kids, so he usually just read books in his room. As a result, Atarik had amazing grades but not really a social life. He was only five though, so that would probably change with time.

Then there were my adopted siblings. I never knew I was adopted as a kid, and only found out as an adult.

My birth brother, Lucas, embraced me with open arms, of course. We'd always been best buddies, back when we thought we were cousins growing up. And I was working on building a better connection with my sister, Sue, even though I was still a little sore that she had known and not told me sooner.

Tom and Ellen I was worried about losing when I told them I wasn't their blood sibling. The two of them were always really, _really_, close with each other when we were kids and they tended to shut me out a lot. When we became adults, they got a house together and moved out, and after that, we'd gotten closer.

Even after Ellen married Michael and Tom married Elizabeth, they still continued to live together with their spouses and now their children. Sometimes, I almost thought they...nah, that's too crazy.

But even after the revelation that we weren't biological siblings, they had remained a part of our lives and would often come visit at our house and our kids would all play together.

And sometimes, they would overlap with the Webers visiting, and then we'd have ten adults and eleven kids in the house. But the nice thing about those nights was, everyone would usually kick in for pizza, which meant Lucas and I wouldn't have to eat our wives' cooking.

Don't get me wrong, Emmie and Allison were gorgeous, amazing women. They were wonderful wives and terrific mothers. Our kids were loved and so were we. For the most part, we had nothing to complain about.

The only issue was their kitchen skills, or lack of them. They were great at pulling things out of a box from the freezer, sticking it on a cookie sheet, and "baking" it in the oven.

So we ate a lot of fish sticks and chicken wings and meatballs and chicken strips and McCain's french fries. They would also cut up fresh fruit and veggies so the kids would get something healthier along with their store-bought finger foods. But that was sort of the extent of their expertise.

I remember once watching Allison burn oatmeal. Like, how do you even do that? Takes a special kind of talent, that's for sure. And Emily? Man, putting Emmie in the kitchen was like watching a five-year-old try to cook!

She tried to make pancakes once, from a mix, and by the end, she was covered in pancake mix and so was our kitchen. They tasted like crispy rocks with lumps of dry dough in them. Again, not sure how she achieved that. Even _I _can make pancakes from a mix.

So, when we didn't have people over and resort to pizza, sometimes Lucas and I would try to cook, just so we didn't have to eat anything weird.

Man, did we ever love our girls. Even if they were terrible cooks, they were awesome people. I had always known that though. It wasn't new information.

When Emms and I had started dating, we were still teenagers. She had told me right from the beginning that she felt like I was "the one" but that she never wanted me to feel like I was trapped. She informed me early on of her desire to travel. And I knew I wanted to go to college, so it was clear I would only be able to go with her during my summer and winter vacations.

She said I could keep dating other people as long as I always came back to her. And she warned me that she would probably do the same.

She never stayed in one place long enough to get serious with anyone though, so I never felt like I had anything to worry about. But for me...I wasn't really great at the casual scene. I was the guy who liked to wake up next to a girl and make her pancakes. I wasn't really the type to hit it and quit it.

So when Allison and I started dating, it got pretty serious pretty fast. And I knew Emms well enough to know she wouldn't mind as long as Allison was open to sharing, which she was.

I wasn't as careful as I should have been though and I accidentally put a Sam-shaped bun in Allie's oven. No regrets there, my son is amazing. But Emms was away at the time, and Allison said that she didn't want to raise a baby unless she was married. So I went to my Aunt Mirabelle for advice, like I always did (not realizing yet that she was biologically my mother, oops), and she told me about Ephraim's Law.

Based on the type of relationship Emmie and I always had, I assumed she would understand my predicament with Allison and still want to marry me. What I wasn't counting on was that she would be away so damn long and not get back until after I had already married Allison. Babies don't wait, so we were kind of on a timeline.

And I also wasn't counting on the fact that she would hear about my marriage to Allison second-hand from her gossipy friend Tiffany before I had a chance to properly explain it myself. And I certainly wasn't counting on the fact that she would break up with me over it and start fucking Lucas to retaliate.

Of course, he didn't know about the tribal law or my plans to still marry Emms, he just knew I'd married Allison (who he was secretly in love with by the way) so he figured Emmie was fair game. And might have been retaliating a little himself for me stealing Allison out from under him. But to be fair, I had no idea he was into her. Lukey was never very outspoken about his feelings.

Anyway, once I had a chance to talk to Emms and properly explain, especially after she had a chance to talk to Allison, she agreed to get back together on a trial basis, as long as she could still see other people.

I agreed, since it wouldn't have been fair to demand exclusivity of her when I couldn't offer it myself. Little did I realize one of the people she wanted to keep seeing was my brother. And the _way_ I found out, was...interesting.

A few weeks after Sam was born, Emms was out on a date and Allison had taken the baby to visit her sister in Port Angeles. I was bored and decided to go hang with Lucas. Of course, my damn brother was always leaving the door to his apartment unlocked.

So, I walked in and Emms was riding him on the couch. I wanted to be mad, but a few things prevented me from getting angry. First, I had told Emmie she was free to be with whomever she wanted, and I meant it. She wasn't my possession. I didn't own her.

Also, by that point, I knew that Lucas was my brother. And when he'd found that out, he had welcomed me with open arms. I loved him and trusted him and we had a mutual respect between us.

And third? Well, I felt weird acknowledging it, but the sight of them together was really fucking hot. So much that I didn't even bother announcing my presence, I just quietly watched from the hallway until they were finished. Emms definitely noticed me though, because her eyes locked with mine and she never once looked away the whole time as she rode the euphoric waves of satisfaction.

Man, that memory always takes me back.

Anyway, that was when I first knew that Lucas and Emms were a thing and shortly after that, Emms told me he had a crush on Allison, which turned out to be mutual. So things gradually evolved until we got to where we are now. Happy with two beautiful wives and four amazing kids and a supportive family and friends around us.

So I guess you could say that for us, every year is a great year. Even if we do have to eat burnt oatmeal on occasion.

* * *

**AN: Another short one, hope it was enough. Got a few more years to get through before we get to the fun stuff!**


	8. 1996

**AN: Hi Folks!**

**Thank you to everyone for reading, fave-ing, following and sticking it out with this story! Special thanks to, catgrl, for reviewing last chapter! **

**The site was being weird and not showing that I updated, so I wouldn't be surprised if it also ate some reviews. So if you think you reviewed 1995 (chapter 7) and you don't see your name here, then that's why.**

******Notice regarding **Covid-19**: I know a lot of people are staying home right now, either self-isolating or because your schools and workplaces are closed.

A lot of you are probably feeling bored and/or lonely, so I want you all to know you can PM me if you just wanna chat with another human. Doesn't even have to be about fanfiction. I'm a stay at home mom and writer, so I'm literally always around!

You can also let me know if you have any prayer requests. Happy to pray for anyone who is struggling as a result of the outbreak, or for any other reason, or someone you know who is**.****

**Okay, now here's the chapter!**

**(This chapter is super duper short but I'm still trying to figure out who Lucas is as a person, so he didn't have as much to say, lol. Don't worry, we'll be back to the Blackswans next chapter!)**

* * *

**Chapter Eight: 1996**

**Lucas's POV**

So, I gotta say, as our kids were getting bigger our lives were getting crazier.

We bought a fish tank because our kids wanted a hamster but Josh and I were like, "Sorry, but we're not cleaning up after anything that eats pellets and lives in sawdust." not to mention their bathroom habits. So we agreed to compromise and get fish.

There were four fish and each kid got to name one. Sam called his Wenda and Alarik called his Waldo to match. Mira went with Grover except she pronounced it "Go-ber" and Emery called hers Floaty. I didn't think that bode very well for her fish and we were pretty sure he wasn't very long for this world. Especially since she kept trying to stick her hands in and give him a hug.

The fish weren't the only new thing in our world, of course. For one thing, Sam started karate lessons over the summer because he said he wanted to learn how to "protect his girls". I'd like to think he meant his little sisters, but I know he actually meant his girlfriends, Leah and Angela. For a ten-year-old, our boy has got some serious game.

Once he was enrolled in karate and we saw that he liked it, we mentioned it to Charlie and Billy, in case their boys were interested. Willie was obsessed with his violin and had no interest, but both Seth and George Charles wanted to participate, so they joined in on the lessons too.

And that's when the girls revolted. Bella was adamant that she wanted to learn karate too but the place the boys were going didn't offer coed classes. So she got Leah and Becks interested as well and the three of them made signs and organized a protest (with the help of Renée and June) in front of the dojo until the owners eventually agreed to allow the girls to join.

I was sure glad I wasn't a Blackswan though. Those guys had an overwhelming number of both wives and kids.

When Josh and I first married Allie and Emms, we talked about whether we wanted to keep our relationship open, like it had been for us when we were dating.

We ended up agreeing that while none of us were _opposed_ to our spouses being with someone outside of our marriage, none of us were actively _looking_ for anything else either. If something came up, we would talk about it then.

But honestly, I had no idea how Charlie and Billy kept four wives happy. Especially when you took into consideration who their wives were. I mean, Sue was my sister and I managed to piss her off all the time so I had no idea how they were able to avoid her wrath.

And June? Shit, man, I talked to Harry enough back in the day to know what a handful she was. And she was his Imprint which probably helped.

Then there was Renée, and man, that chick was a contradiction. She was like…super smart but somehow also an airhead? And she would come up with these totally crazy projects for the kids all of the time.

Like when Sam would come home from there, he was usually covered in glitter and glue and marker and all that crap and I'd be like, "What did you do today?" and he'd be like, "We made rocket ships that actually shot up in the air! And Jakey almost shot his hand off!"

At least the kids always got fed pretty well when they went over there. But yeah, I was pretty sure that Sarah was the only sane one of their women. I really had to wonder what they'd ever do without her. Pretty sure they'd all be crying and screaming and covered in glue all the time.

* * *

**AN: Some more faceclaims for you!**

**Josh Uley: Adam Beach**

**Lucas Uley: Martin Sensmeier**

**Allison Uley (nee Ataruk): Shannon Baker**

**Emmie Uley (nee Black): Andrea Gabriel**

**I love to hear from you!**


	9. 1997

**AN: Hi All!**

**Enjoying your time at home, I hope?**

**Well, if you're bored, I plan on putting out lots of content over the weeks to come because let's face it...quarantine is a bitch, am I right? And this chapter is longer than the last few in case you need more content to keep yourselves occupied. **

**Also sorry it took a little longer. I spent a ridiculously long time trying to figure out what grade the Blackswan kids should be in this year. Shout out to twi nana for helping me with my terrible math skills! :'-D**

**Anyway, thanks to all who read, follow, fave, and review!**

**The site was glitching on my last time, so it ate at least one of my reviews and for that I am sorry. But I was able to see them in my emails, and I updated the review credits accordingly. It seems to be working again and thankfully all the reviews are showing up now, including the one(s) that weren't before.**

**Thank you to WPear, catgrl, and twi nana for their reviews last chapter!**

**Now, I give you 1997!**

* * *

**Chapter Nine: 1997**

**Billy's POV**

Man, our kids were getting big fast!

And saucy, our kids were getting saucy. In January, a couple of days after her birthday, I asked Leah to take the trash out, and she said: "Dad, this is my birth week, can't someone else do it?"

So I raised my eyebrow at her (you know, that magical eyebrow quirk that parents have) and I said "Look here, Young Lady. Turning eleven does not make you Queen of the Universe. You know what happens to kids who don't do their assigned chores, right?"

She sighed dramatically (a trait she learned from Mama June) and muttered, "they get the crappy ones."

"That's right!" I grinned victoriously. "So you're on dead fish flushing duty for this week instead of trash duty. And the strainer broke and we haven't picked up a new one yet, so you'll have to scoop them up with your hands."

We had gotten a fish tank shortly after the Uleys did because their kids were so excited about their fish that it sounded like fun. But our household is really busy and a lot of us adults have jobs as well, so we decided right off the bat that the kids could do everything fish related themselves.

They fed the fish. They cleaned the tank. We had purchased one fish for each kid and told them if their fish died and they wanted a new one, they had to pay for it. Each kid had picked a different species of fish so that it was easy to tell whose was whose.

Normally, the child whose fish died had to flush it themselves, (or feed it to the neighbor's dog, whichever their preference). But when a child was on 'crappy chores' duty, scooping up the floaters was a job that went to them.

Now, you might not think there would be a lot of dead fish during a given week, but some of the kids were better at fish feeding than others. And they all rotated through feeding duty on an 11-week schedule. The week that Leah had given me lip about trash duty was Henry's week to feed the fish.

Henry, being only six, was convinced the fish all wanted to get really chubby because that was "how fish looked best" so he always tended to overfeed them. By a lot.

And since the fish tank was meant to be a lesson in self-sufficiency and responsibility, none of us adults bothered to remind him of the appropriate amount of food. I mean, the instructions were clearly labeled and the boy knew how to read, it's not like we were being cruel, by any means.

Although, from the look on Leah's face, you would think we were ruining her life, making her flush fish for a week.

It was a strange thing. We could take the kids fishing and they'd all be fine bonking the fish on the heads themselves when they caught one and cooking them on the fire for dinner. But the second you put a fish in a tank and named him Stanley...well, _then_ he was _family_. And it was a sad, sad, thing when you found Stanley belly up, stuffed to the gills, because Henry had wanted him and his little fish friends to be "fat and happy".

But, other than Leah's fishy issues, January went pretty well. Or about as well as January ever goes in our family. Sue's grief over Harry had lessened somewhat over time, but June's was just as sharp as the day we got the news, thanks to their imprint.

It made me worry how Renée would be if I ever kicked it, and likewise, how Sarah would fare if something ever happened to Charlie. Or the reverse, God forbid! I could not even fathom what a wolf would go through if his Imprint died.

And unfortunately, we had nothing in the tribal records to give us any clues about that either. So really, we just had to hope that wouldn't happen until we were all old and grey and no longer phasing anymore.

Anyway, February was pretty fun. The kids had a lot of neat projects going on at school. Our grade-five kids were learning about different types of poems and they were supposed to choose a style of poem and come up with one poem of the chosen type for each member of their family.

Since we had five grade-five kids and a huge family, that meant each of those five kids really had their work cut out for them. Thankfully though, their teacher this year was Jane Ateara, Sarah's sister. And since she was part of a Poly family herself, and knew that some of the families of some of her students would be large like ours, she gave them all of February to complete them.

And of course, there were way too many poems to show them off here, but I will tell you my favorite. It was the limerick Leah wrote about Bella.

_There once was a cool girl named Bella._

_Did karate as good as a fella._

_She was usually quite nice,_

_Though she pranked us with mice,_

_And I'm sure glad her name was not Stella!_

I should qualify that a bit I guess. So...Bella _loved_ having siblings.

Most of the other kids would get annoyed with each other on occasion and some even played favorites, (like Rachel, Seth, and George Charles who were still basically their own exclusive little club, to an extent, as much as we had tried nipping that one in the bud).

But Bella? She loved each of her siblings as if they were the greatest thing ever. And sure, they would still fight, or tease each other, like when she would find a mouse in the woods and chase the other kids with it, but she was always the first to apologize, even at times when the fight was in no way her fault. She would always find a way to take responsibility somehow.

And I don't mean, in that way that victims do, where they feel like someone else's bad behavior is something they caused. I mean the opposite, actually. Bella had a ton of self-respect (something that Sue had been working on instilling in the kids ever since she had joined our family).

So, when someone was mean to Bella, she would say something like, "Jakey, I'm sorry if I somehow gave you the idea it was okay to call me a silly girl. I am not a silly girl, I am a sensible girl, and I think you know that.

"So I can only assume that either you were just teasing and took it too far, or you were mad at someone else and taking it out on me."

And sure, some of you might be thinking that 'silly girl' is a pretty mild insult, but we had developed a rule in our house in recent years. Negative remarks about another person had to always be specific to the incident at hand.

In other words, it was not okay to say "I hate you" but it was okay to say "I hate the way you are acting right now.". Likewise, it was not okay to say "You're so stupid." But it was okay to say "I thought it was so stupid that you were mean to Julia."

So in other words, "silly girl" was not okay because it implied that Bella was _always_ silly, not that she was _being_ silly in that particular moment.

As the movie Camp Nowhere puts it, "Just because I'm smart, doesn't mean I can't act stupid." which is true of even the smartest of people.

So it is perfectly possible for someone to take issue with your actions or words and point them out to you, _without_ belittling you. And if they can manage to do so tactfully, then they are not being mean, they are being a good friend.

This was the principle we had encouraged our kids to live by. If you only have two or three kids in a family, it can be harder to notice how they are treating each other, especially when there are only one or two adults keeping a watchful eye. We often noticed that it was a problem for many of our friends with smaller families.

When you had eleven children all calling each other names on a regular basis...it became pretty obvious pretty quickly that you had a hostile environment forming. Especially when you had six sets of watchful eyes available. And that is how we were able to extinguish a lot of the smaller fires between our kids before they had room to turn into raging infernos.

But some kids definitely had more of a knack for social problem-solving than others. The "people pleasers", for instance, seemed to have a tremendously challenging time developing healthy relationships. If you were terrified that someone wouldn't like you...you might find it harder to call them out on their behavior when they mistreated you.

That was a problem that Willie had, especially in his younger years. The other kids would tend to ignore him because he was soft-spoken and polite and did not stick up for himself out of a fear of being rude or not well-liked.

Sue had been working especially hard on teaching him how to stand up for himself. This became especially important once we realized a certain fact. Willie did not take interest in girls, in the way that most other boys usually begin to at a certain age. He took an interest in other boys.

Of course, he never outright told us this, but we noticed. Again, it helped that we had so many sets of eyes.

And so, as Renée (who read a lot of psychology books and magazines) told us, Willie's temperament was likely to leave him vulnerable in a same-sex relationship.

Because of his strong desire to be well-liked, he had a tendency to put up with a lot more from his peers. We had noticed that even when one of his brothers would get physically rough and hurt him, as boys sometimes tended to do to one another, he would forgive them almost instantly and act like it was no big deal.

We knew this would be a problem.

Our society was not built to support people in Willie's shoes. Boys were usually taught growing up that you never, ever, ever hit a woman. But how many boys were ever taught that you never, ever, ever hit another boy? No, most of the time, when boys got into a physical altercation, the adults would just tell them to "knock it off" and if one tried to explain who threw the first punch, often, they were told, "I don't care who started it."

And I could understand why they said things like "I don't care who started it." because they were naturally assuming that both parties were equally responsible and therefore the one "tattling" was just shifting the blame.

What they usually forgot to take into account was that it _does_ matter who throws the first punch. If you throw the second punch, it is generally considered self-defense. When someone attacks you, you have a right to use force to defend yourself. Not excessive force, certainly, you shouldn't escalate the problem. But you _should_ know how to use minimal force to subdue an attacker.

This was one of the reasons we wished Willie had taken an interest in karate or some other type of self-defense. He needed to learn how to stand up for himself. Otherwise, some asshole controlling, manipulative boyfriend was gonna take advantage of his "people pleasing" tendencies and he would get hurt.

So what did we do? We decided to let Bella help Willie. She had become exceptional at putting the other kids in their place when they disrespected her. So, we tasked her with keeping her eyes and ears open where Willie was concerned and stepping in to teach him how to stick up for himself.

Like the day in July that Seth got mad at Willie for ignoring him while he was practicing his violin and threw his bow across the room. Willie went and picked it up and Seth apologized. Then Willie inspected the bow and saw that it was not damaged, so he said: "it's fine, Seth, I forgive you."

So Bella jumped in. She said, "No, Willie, it's not fine. Whether or not you forgive him, _you_ need to make sure _he_ understands that what he did was wrong. Otherwise, he will think there are no consequences and do something like this again.

"Tell him, Willie. Tell him how this made you feel. I know you don't want Seth to be mad at you, but trust me, it's for his own good. It doesn't help him if you let him get away with being mean. That just teaches him that it's okay to be mean." she insisted.

Willie thought about that and slowly nodded. "Okay, well, Seth...I-I didn't like it when you threw my bow. I w-work very hard on my music. It's something important to me. If my bow had been wrecked and I couldn't play, it would be...devastating." he finished after searching for the appropriate word.

"Great, Willie! That was awesome!" Bella beamed, hugging him. "I'm proud of you, Big Brother."

Seth, on the other hand, frowned and said, "I _know_ your music is important to you. A lot of times, it seems like _it's_ more important to you than _we_ are. That's why I got mad and threw your bow."

"Oh, I get it! You did it because you don't like playing 'second fiddle'?" Bella grinned, proud of what arguably had to be her worst pun ever.

Seth just groaned and smacked his palm on his forehead.

Willie chuckled.

"I'm sorry you felt like you weren't important to me. You are, Seth. I love you. I know it probably seems like my music is all I care about, but that is just because I really want to get good at it.

"I feel like there is this magical deadline out there. Like, once I reach a certain point, I will have an opportunity to play for some amazing musician somewhere. And when that happens, I want that person to be impressed. To see me as an equal. That probably makes no sense, I know. But it's how I feel." Willie explained with a sigh.

Seth's brow furrowed as he looked at Willie with new eyes. "Wow. That sounds like a lot of pressure. I get it now, why you work so hard at it. I didn't before, but now I do."

"There, see? Now, don't we all feel better?" Bella grinned, patting her brothers on the back.

"Sure, sure," Seth and Willie laughed as they all headed off to eat the oven-baked macaroni and cheese that Sarah has made them.

The rest of the year progressed pretty much the same. Not the mac n' cheese, I mean, although sure, sure, that too. But I mean with the kids helping each other out of jams.

They sort of started to become their own little tribe within the tribe, banding together as needed and lifting one another up when one of them was down. It was something we all could take a lesson from, even as adults.

* * *

**AN: Feel free to review and you can also just PM me if you want to chat about whatevs! ;-***

**ps: no real fish were harmed in the making of this chapter! (Mostly because my pantry is out of tuna, lmaooo)**


	10. 1998

**AN: Hi Folks!**

**I hope everyone is surviving their coronapocalype and that all your loved ones are safe in their houses!**

**Things are getting pretty real out there and I just want to say, thank you to everyone in essential services who are still working in spite of the risk to their own wellbeing. **

**This includes things like grocery stores and pharmacies because people still need to eat and they still need medicine. You probably don't realize it but you folks are the backbone at times like this and you don't get nearly enough appreciation, so thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. **

**And if you're not in essential services but you know someone who is, please take a moment to thank them and show appreciation!**

**Speaking of appreciation, thank you to all who read, fave, follow, and review this story! Your readership and feedback make me so happy! Special thanks to reviewers for last chapter, WPear, twi nana, and catgrl!**

**This is a short chapter because you are getting two at once and I wanted to put most of my focus on 1999 because it is the last one before the epilogue.**

**But first, here is 1998!**

* * *

**Chapter Ten: 1998**

**Charlie's POV**

Our eldest kids turned twelve this year and I shuddered to think that we would soon have a house full of teenagers. Kids were one thing, teenagers were another.

As a cop, I had often found myself in a position to be dealing with other people's teenagers and their bad behavior over the years. And while I was aware that lots of teenagers were good kids who grew up into upstanding adults, I also knew that this wasn't always the case.

The La Push PD didn't have as many problems in that regard over the years as the Forks PD had during my brief time working in town. The kids on the Rez were generally pretty respectful, for the most part. I had to assume that was partly due to having grown up hearing legends of giant wolves watching over the tribe. I remember being a kid myself and thinking "Gee, I'd better behave or the giant wolves might eat me."

But the thing was, even the most respectful kids still went through the hormonal changes of puberty. Which meant there was really no avoiding the fact that in another couple of years, they would be moody and emotional and start hogging the bathroom a lot more.

I knew some of the girls had already started having discreet, secret conversations with their mothers. Thankfully, all of our wives were kind, compassionate, and loving, and I knew they were well equipped for helping our girls through the transition into womanhood.

And of course, Billy and I were gonna do everything we could to ensure our boys turned into the best kind of men, as they all got older and progressed through puberty as well.

There was so much they wouldn't learn in school. So much that parents still needed to teach their kids themselves. Things like compassion, kindness, sincerity, honesty, open-mindedness, humility, love, diplomacy, courage, generosity, concern for others.

And the more tangible, practical skills too. Like how to balance a checkbook, how to live below your means, how to save for a rainy day, how to prepare for an emergency, how to plant a garden, even something as basic as knowing how to cook, was seldom taught in schools. These were the things we as parents were committed to teaching them.

We couldn't know what their futures might hold, or what disasters they might face. We could only look into their eyes and tell them the things they needed to know for one day years from now when they would be out on their own in the world and we wouldn't be around to teach them anymore.

And sure, I'd like to hope that even once our kids moved out, they would stay in the area. But our sister, Nora, was a perfect example of the fact that doesn't always happen. Sometimes kids grew up and moved halfway around the world from their parents. Or sometimes, parents died. You just never knew what was in store.

In life, it always pays to be ready for anything.

* * *

**AN: Haha looks like puberty is about to hit the Blackswans with a vengeance! Wonder what else is about to hit in 1999!**

**Oh and just because I'm giving you two chapters at once, of course, I still want reviews for this one! ;-***


	11. 1999

**AN: Hi All! **

**Th****ank you to all who read, fave, follow and review! Major thanks to WPear, twi nana, and catgrl, for reviewing last chapter!**

**We're almost done with Family Album now and then we'll be moving on to Uniting the Alphas which will be part three of this series.**

**After this chapter there will be an epilogue.**

***Btw, you may want a handkerchief nearby for this chapter! Notice I did not say tissues because we are all trying our best not to be wasteful during the Covid crisis!***

* * *

**Chapter Eleven: 1999**

**Sarah's POV**

1999 was proving to be a fun year.

Except for the whole Y2K thing that everyone was freaking out about. People in town had started talking about it months ago. So many folks were convinced that all of the computers which ran so many things in the world nowadays were going to go crazy and stop working because they had never been programmed to deal with years beginning with a 2, such as the year 2000. So people thought we were going to be launched back into the stone age.

I felt like reminding them that computers were a relatively new thing and that even if everything that used them stopped working, we would still survive, we would just need to adjust.

But people in a panic didn't usually listen to reason, so they spent their time hoarding supplies and preparing for an event that probably wouldn't even happen.

The most ironic part, in my opinion, was that these same people had never bothered to prepare for other more likely disasters that happen all of the time. If they had, they wouldn't need to prepare now.

We Blackswans had no cause for worry because, with eleven children, we always kept a generous amount of supplies on hand anyway.

Charlie's rule of thumb, having worked as a first responder his whole adult life was that it was important to have enough supplies around that your entire family could live comfortably for three months and also accommodate close family and friends as needed. Which meant, if we rationed, those same supplies would last that number of people for a year.

In other words, we were prepared. This was good because I couldn't imagine the stress of trying to acquire all the things you thought you might need if you weren't used to just having those things on hand. Especially when everyone else was doing the same thing.

But hey, if Y2K was the thing that would finally get people to be responsibly prepared for a disaster or emergency, then I guess some good would come out of it, at least. Real disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions, and even epidemics, happened all the time, and sadly, most people were never prepared for them.

I had been spending a lot more time praying for people this year than I had for a long time (except for our family and friends who I prayed for all of the time anyway) but the whole world was freaking out right now, so I figured they needed the prayers more than usual.

And so...after a whirlwind year of homework and projects and social dramas and hormones and first periods and first pimples and even some first crushes (for the younger kids, I mean, since some of the older ones acted like they were practically already married anyway)...we began changing gears and looking toward Christmas amidst a combination of the regular December holiday craziness and this new type of chaos, caused by the impending apocalypse or whatever it was going to be.

Stores in town were busier and crazier than usual. People were more self-absorbed and more paranoid than usual. And Christmas seemed to be more of an afterthought than usual since everyone was more obsessed with what New Year's would bring. Which, frankly, I found a little sad.

The holidays were supposed to be a celebration, not just of Jesus, though that was the main point of Christmas, but also of life and love and family and friends and generosity and togetherness. But honestly, I wasn't seeing a whole lot of that, at least in town. At home, those were still our priorities. But I knew from the kids that even at school, much of the chatter centered around what would happen in January and what the future would look like.

So by December 9th, when I went into town to do the last of my shopping, I was really dreading it. I knew it was going to be busy and that people would be anxious and grumpy and bothered about pretty much everything and I didn't like to be around that.

"Take my car," Charlie offered, as I grabbed my reusable shopping bags preparing to leave. I was going alone because I still had yet to find gifts for my spouses and I needed to do that when they weren't around. "That way, you can radio back to me, if you run into any problems in town. There has been a lot more theft and petty crimes lately and I want you to be safe," he said.

His car had a CB radio in it for his police work. He'd taught us all how to use it in case we ever needed to. A lot of people were starting to carry cellular phones these days, but that was a luxury we couldn't afford.

"Okay, thank you, Charlie." I nodded, kissing him on the cheek. "I'm sure I'll be fine but I appreciate the concern."

He handed me the keys, then he wrapped his arms around me, pressing me to him in a passionate kiss. "Be careful, okay?"

"I will," I vowed and headed out the back door with a wave.

I put my cloth grocery bags in the passenger seat of Charlie's car.

"Where are you going, Momma?" Leah asked me, carrying her basketball and coming over to the car.

"Into town to buy some things for Christmas." I smiled, kissing her forehead.

"May I come with you? My chores are done," she asked excitedly.

I smiled softly. "I'm glad your chores are done. And I would definitely let you come with me to town if things weren't so crazy there right now. People are a little anxious and that sometimes causes other problems like bad behavior. So it isn't very safe right now."

"Oh. Well, then you shouldn't be going alone. Why is no one going with you?" She frowned.

I pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry about me, Leah. I'm pretty resilient. I asked the other grownups to let me go alone because I haven't bought their presents yet, so I am going to do that."

"Oh, okay. Well, be careful?" She suggested.

"I will. That's why I'm taking Pa's car, not mine. So I can use his radio if need be," I assured her.

"Cool. Can we have burgers for dinner tonight, please? We haven't had them in a long time," she asked hopefully.

"You're right, Leah. It was supposed to be spaghetti night, but let's have burgers. Can you let Mother know I okayed it and tell her I will pick up the buns on my way home?" I offered.

"Sure! Thanks, Momma! Love you!" She beamed and kissed my cheek.

"Love you, Sweetheart." I smiled cheerfully, settling into the driver's seat. I adjusted the settings because Charlie was a lot taller than me and then I slowly backed out of the driveway, waving at Leah as she headed inside.

* * *

Town was...both more and less crazy than I had expected. It was not as bad as I feared it might be. On some level, I had anticipated rioting and panic in the streets. I half expected someone to get shot like there usually was in those end-of-the-world movies.

Mercifully, compared to that worst-case scenario image, things were reasonably calm.

The shelves were more picked over, the shoppers were grumpier, the carols playing in the stores seemed a little louder, probably to take everyone's minds off of their worries, and there was an underlying current of uncertainty that was almost tangible.

But I found great things for my family. A beautiful jewelry box for Renée, a service that took your recipes and photos and made them into a professional-looking cookbook for Sue, an organizer for June's scarves and a few new scarves for her collection.

That girl used scarves for everything! Shirts, skirts, baby carriers (back in the day), head wraps, shawls, even tablecloths when we went on a picnic! June without scarves would be like a peacock without feathers, it just wouldn't look right.

Anyway, I also found a beautiful watch for Charlie which I was getting inscribed, and a cigar case for Billy which would be engraved as well. I had time to kill while the engraver did the inscriptions, so I went for lunch at the diner. I had turkey and mashed potatoes with stuffing and gravy and cranberries and green beans since it was nice to have a holiday meal without having to cook anything myself.

I even treated myself to a big slice of chocolate fudge cake for dessert. Sometimes, it was nice to do something a little extravagant and self-indulgent for a change.

By the time I had finished my cake and coffee and paid the check, I knew the boys' presents would be ready to be picked up, so I headed back there. The engraver had done an amazing job! The letters were clear and easy to read and the script was beautiful. I had to hope my boys would be happy with their gifts.

I was about to head home when I remembered I still needed to get the buns for burgers, so I stopped at the grocery store on my way out of town. The cashier was very nice and rang me through quickly and efficiently.

I headed back to the car and set my purchases on the passenger seat. I was running behind and wanted to get the buns home before Sue needed them, so I drove a little faster as I headed out on the highway.

I didn't even see the 18-wheeler before it slammed into me. I only heard the sound. I've never heard such a sound in my life. It was a combination of a horn and metal-on-metal and breaking glass and fear. I didn't know fear made a sound until the moment it happened. But as I sat there in the wreckage trying to make sense of what had just happened, my head hurt and my ears rang and all I could hear was the fear.

Both my own and the fear of the other driver as he rushed to my side and apologetically vowed to go get help because his radio was broken.

Before I had regained myself enough to tell him I had a CB in the car, he was gone. So I picked up the radio myself.

"Charlie...Baby...I'm on the highway near the turnoff. I think...I need an ambulance." I managed to rasp.

And then everything went black.

* * *

I was in and out of consciousness as the paramedics arrived and I remember them carefully getting me out of the vehicle after the firefighters had used the jaws of life to cut through the wreckage. The sound of that thing also rang with the fear in my ears.

They stabilized my neck and put me on a stretcher. I remember they worked on me in the ambulance. I know I must have been pretty touch-and-go because when they wheeled me through the hospital, I heard one of the doctors ordering a nurse to get my family there. I was pretty sure they would just be coming to say goodbye. I wanted to tell them not to call because I knew the kids would just be scared and they didn't need the memory of seeing me like this.

But I could not talk because everything hurt too much, so I had no choice but to just let them be stupid. I had to hope my guys would have better sense than to bring the kids.

When I went into surgery, the last thing I remember was the anesthesiologist telling me to count backward from ten. I think I got to seven or maybe five before I passed out.

I assume a long time must have passed because the next thing I remember was from after the surgery.

I couldn't move or open my eyes, but I was aware of my surroundings. The funny thing about being in a coma is, you are not asleep. You can hear everything. You just seem like you are sleeping.

So I heard the doctors telling Charlie and Billy that there was swelling on my brain and we would just have to wait and see.

I knew they had removed my spleen due to internal bleeding and that my leg was fractured in several places. I knew that my kids were mercifully _not_ there because my husbands had the good sense God gave them to keep the kids at home.

The Uleys or someone must have been watching them though because Sue and June and Renée were all there by my side. I was in awe of how much these people all loved me. I could hear it in their voices, in their terror. I knew if I died, at least, I would not die alone.

"Sarah, you have to fight." I heard Charlie say after the doctor left. "If you go, you will be taking me with you. I can't live without you," he said gruffly. I knew it was his wolf talking. Charlie, the _man_, would be just fine. He had three other, wonderful, beautiful wives who loved him. He would be sad. He would be heartbroken. But he would live.

But the imprint? That was a different story. I knew he was telling the truth. Charlie would _not_ be fine. His wolf would _not_ be fine. He was a spirit-warrior. But the imprint had tethered his soul to mine. If I left...I _would_ be taking him with me. There was no doubt, I knew without certainty he was right.

And so…

I fought.

I fought for Charlie.

I fought for Billy.

I fought for Renée and for Sue and for June.

I fought for my kids.

And slowly but surely, I started getting better.

I remember vividly the day I "woke up". The day that I could finally look around, albeit slowly because my head still hurt. But I could see them. I could see the people who loved me. And I cried.

They were crying too. They were careful because I still had tubes and machines everywhere, but they ran their hands along my arms and in my hair and they kissed me on the head and the cheeks and we cried.

_I made it._

I was gonna be able to see my kids again.

The fight wasn't over, of course. There would be pain and there would be rehab. I knew I had my work cut out for me.

But the sun was shining and the birds were singing outside of my hospital room and I felt I had been given a second chance. A chance to do better. A chance to make my kids proud.

When the tube came out and I could talk, the first question I whispered with my raspy throat was, "What day is it?"

Charlie smiled. He knew what I wanted to know.

"It's December 20th, Sarah. You didn't miss Christmas. The presents all survived the wreck. I wrapped them. Nobody else saw them, I promise. The buns didn't survive but the Uleys brought some and LeeLee still got her burgers for dinner. We didn't tell the kids anything until we were sure you were gonna be okay.

"They want to come see you, once you feel ready, but they understand and there is absolutely no rush," he assured me, covering all of my unspoken questions.

I wanted to say that I needed to see them now. But I knew what I must look like. I knew that seeing me now would terrify them. I couldn't do that to them. So I waited.

Three agonizingly long days later, I was doing a lot better. Miraculously better, the doctors were calling it. Mostly because Charlie was brilliant.

He not only had type O negative blood which was the universal donor, but I was his imprint and he had supernatural healing capacities. He figured even though it was a long-shot, any shot was better than no shot. So, during my surgery, Sue, as an RN, had asked permission to scrub in.

And since the hospital staff knew her, they allowed it. Then, when no one was looking, she discreetly swapped out the blood they were transfusing me with for Charlie's.

And low and behold, it had worked. What would have been a month-long coma, I came out of in a matter of days.

The bones were healing, the bruises were fading. The doctors weren't sure what to make of it, but they chalked it up to "one of those inexplicable things that happen sometimes" because scientists rarely give the credit to a higher power.

But I knew there was magic in the world. It wasn't science that healed me so fast. It was the same God who had put Charlie Blackswan in my life. I knew, without him, I would be dead.

Instead, I got to go home for Christmas.

* * *

**AN: Okay, stahp crying now, People! You're making me bawl my little eyes out over here!**

**I know some of you were worried about Sarah even before this chapter. But I always planned to give her this near-miss.**

**To me, it seemed to make the most sense that the accident would still happen but the circumstances would change.**

**Anyone who has ever seen the German movie "Run, Lola, Run" will understand my theory there.**

**So yeah, I hope we are all happy that she is okay!**

**As always, I love to hear from you! Reviews are great, but also feel free to PM me if you want to chat about anything!**

**Hugs and Prayers and Blessings,**

**-BMW**


	12. Epilogue

**AN: Okay Folks!**

**Here is the epilogue! We are finally done with this boring drivel! The real story (aka Part Three) will be posting soon! Thanks for hanging in, reading, favouriting, following, reviewing!**

**Mega thanks to WPear, twi nana, CowgirlKelly, and catgrl, for reviewing last chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve: Epilogue**

**Renée's POV**

Watching Sarah go through recovery after the accident was stressful for everyone. She had always been a strong, capable woman, and being unable to do things for herself that she normally wouldn't think twice about, was like torture for her.

I still remember the panic when we heard her distress over the radio as she asked for an ambulance. Charlie had phoned the ambulance, grabbed Sue and June, our resident nurses, and headed to the scene of the accident, knowing they could get there before the ambulance would.

Billy and I stayed home with the kids until we could get the Uleys to come and watch them. It was the worst fear I have ever felt.

Losing Sarah would have been like losing the heartbeat of our family. She was the one who kept the rest of us sane. June and Sue and I all had very..._extreme_ personalities. Sarah was the even-keel one, with the steady hands and soft smile. She always had a hug or reassurance for anyone who needed it. She was always our safe harbor during the storms of life.

And the accident was her own personal hurricane.

But, she got through it. Her body healed and soon enough, we were all able to breathe. And gradually, things went back to normal.

By the time the kids were heading back to school after winter break, Sarah was almost as good as new. Thank heavens for Charlie's blood. Her recovery probably would have taken a year or even longer without it.

But even after Sarah was healed, all of the kids were a lot clingier with her than they ever had been. The rest of us moms were basically chopped liver for a while. I guess nearly losing her had scared them just as much as it had scared us. Even though we had carefully downplayed how bad it really had been. I think they instinctively knew.

But the kids had their own stuff going on as well. They were getting old enough that they were each finding their own paths in the world.

Leah, our oldest, was just as stubborn as always. But she had learned patience and compassion. She spent most of her free time with Sam, although she had learned to make room for Angela and they seemed to coexist peacefully most of the time, though they certainly still fought on occasion.

Rachel, the eldest of the twins, was the head of creativity and marketing for the GCBS Kids Café, which was what George Charles' lemonade stand had become. She conducted surveys among all of their friends to ensure they catered to the demands of their demographic.

Their menu had evolved into specialties that they could charge more for because they were fancy and popular. And while anyone could _eat_ their wares, they were only willing to _sell_ to other kids. Which meant, if an adult wanted a frozen lemonade, they had to send their son or daughter to pick it up for them.

Some of their most popular items were the Bannock Bread Sandwich Series, with Peanut Butter Jam and Peanut Butter Banana being their biggest sellers. And they made a frozen peach lemonade and a frozen raspberry lemonade that all the kids went crazy for.

Eventually, we had built them a little structure in the corner of our yard that they used as their café. It had four tables they had salvaged and decorated with fancy tablecloths Sue made for them.

It had a counter and a menu board. They had purchased a blender out of their profits which they used for their frozen drinks and they had purchased a double burner hot plate to cook their bannock and other items. They also had upgraded their picnic cooler to a mini-fridge for their cold ingredients eventually (which we had gotten for them one Christmas).

The café was almost always where Rachel, Seth, and, of course, George Charles, could be found whenever they weren't in school or doing their chores or homework.

They were open from 4-6 pm on weekday afternoons. We made them close at 6 pm so they could have dinner with the family and still do their homework before bed. Their hours on Saturdays were 9 am to 4 pm and we insisted they take Sundays off entirely so we could still do things as a family.

RaeRae was the one who took the orders and served the customers and chatted with them and kept them happy. George Charles, the proprietor, and chef of the establishment, handled the books and the cooking. Seth did their grocery shopping at the farmer's market in town and kept the café clean and well maintained.

Becks sometimes hung out there as well whenever she missed her twin, and of course made purchases there, as all the kids did, but mostly, she preferred to play basketball with Leah. They had both gotten pretty good and by the time they were old enough to go out for the girls' basketball team, they easily made the starting lineup and quickly became the star players.

Speaking of Becks, I still remember the day I went into the older girls' bedroom and found her kissing one of the other girls from the basketball team. I've never seen two people fly apart and pretend to be studying as quickly as those two had! I just giggled and collected the laundry and advised them to lock the door if they wanted their privacy.

I was surprised something similar hadn't happened with Willie yet, but he was too preoccupied with his music to have time for boys. He had gotten so good with the violin that we'd had to get him a better violin teacher in Seattle. So, every Saturday, one of us grown-ups took turns driving Willie to Seattle to study under an accomplished professional violinist.

It was worth it, though. His sound was amazing. He could play almost any piece of music and play it tremendously well.

So well, in fact, that by his grade ten year, he was already fielding offers from college music programs as well as professional orchestras. He kept declining them though and when we asked him why, all he said was that when the right thing came he would know it. "I'll feel it in my bones," he insisted. So we let it be.

Seth, in addition to working with George Charles and Rachel, had gotten pretty interested in skateboarding. He wasn't looking to do it professionally or anything, but he was pretty good at it and could do all kinds of fancy tricks on it.

So whenever he wasn't at the café, he was usually doing grocery runs in town for George Charles on his board. Or running errands for us, such as dropping parcels at the post office or picking up tools for Billy from the hardware store. Really, he would take any excuse to pop a wheelie or whatever.

And then there was Bella. Out of all our kids, Bella was the one who was best at managing her time. She made just as much time for her younger siblings as she did for her older ones.

She would play basketball with Leah and Becks; hang out at the café with the GCBS crew; sit and listen to Willie practice his music; work on her karate (she had passed all the other kids in level ranking); and still make time to play dolls with Suzie; or help Henry with his homework; or break up a disagreement between Jakey and Julia (which happened a lot).

And when any of the kids had a problem, they were just as likely to take it to Bella as they were to bring it to us. She usually had a reasonable solution to offer and when she didn't, she would find one. Her problem-solving skills rivaled those of most adults.

She even helped George Charles when he was thinking of expanding his business. He wanted to diversify but he wasn't sure what to invest in next. So Bella suggested he start a landscaping business in town and hire their friends in town as his employees. That way, he only needed to be there to advertise and secure clients. Once the clients were in place, his workers could do the rest.

So he did. He took a portion of his profits from the café and used them to buy push-powered mowers which were cheaper and better for the environment. He hired Sam, Atarik, and Quil, to begin with. They each received a mower on loan and were told that if it broke they had to pay to replace it. He told them they wouldn't have to find clients or even interact with them, they just had to mow the lawns.

In return, they would get fifty percent of the money from the lawns they mowed. Since they were used to not having any money, they thought this was a great deal.

So George Charles went about setting up clients and scheduling their services and once a month they made their checks out to him (we had helped him open a bank account back when the café started getting to be a big thing). Then, each of his employees would receive cash from him once a month for the lawns they mowed. He allowed them to set their own availability and scheduled their clients accordingly. For the most part, it was pretty win-win.

Although, most of the time, when his employees came to pick up their pay, they just turned around and spent it at the café. But hey, that was their choice. And all of their parents were happy because he was giving the kids something productive to do. He also donated ten percent of his total profits to local charities. He may have been focused on profits but he also had a good head on his shoulders.

And of course, whenever Quil came around to pick up his pay or discuss something with his boss, Jakey and Julia were thrilled to have extra time with him. That was where most of their fighting stemmed from. Quil and Jakey were best friends, but Julia was head over heels for Quil and he for her. So whenever he came over, Julia and Jakey would both try to have one-on-one time with him and exclude the other.

Poor Quil just wanted to spend time with both of them and I think he was getting a little sick of being the rope in their tug-of-war. But of course, whenever things got really strained, Bella would jump in and put things in perspective and then for at least a while there would be peace.

Suzie tended to get pulled into those disagreements too because Julia was her best friend and therefore expected her to take her side. But also, Jakey and Suzie were...close. In the way that George Charles, Seth, and Rachel were...close. As in, we had taken to keeping an open door policy around the house.

With so many children, many of whom weren't even biologically related, it was bound to be an issue. And it really wasn't like we could say much. Charlie's biological parents, Helen and William, had been first cousins. So were Josh and Lucas' parents, Jonathan and Mirabelle. It was an extremely small tribe. Nearly everyone was related in some way or another.

We couldn't control the future. All we could do was slow it down. And all of the kids had been given "the talk" several times in several different ways by several different adults who had all stressed that they were young and would have the rest of their lives to do grown-up things and should take the time now to just be kids or they might one day regret not doing so.

We were really blessed though. To think that a few fights between siblings and some getting a bit too affectionate were the only problems we had to contend with, well, it meant our kids were pretty good kids.

Of course, there was one problem we'd started having that couldn't be ignored much longer.

Last week, Willie had come home with bruises on his face and limping badly enough that Bella had to help him into the house.

"What happened?" Sue asked, frantically applying first aid.

"He just started hitting me and calling me bad words and he told me to stop staring at his brother," Willie admitted quietly.

"It was bad, Moms. I had to pull the kid off of him. By the time I got there Willie was on the ground, it didn't look like the boy was going to stop." Bella whispered.

"Good Lord," Sarah trembled. We were all pretty shaken.

Charlie came over, "What was the name of the boy?"

Bella shook her head, "Don't, Pa. One kid isn't the problem. The problem is, it's a small school. No one is openly gay there except Willie. The other boys are afraid to talk to him because they think everyone will assume they are gay if they do. And even the ones who _are_...they don't have Willie's confidence. They're just scared. Not everyone has accepting parents like you guys.

"He needs to go to a bigger school where he won't be the only gay kid. Where he won't stick out as much. That's the solution," Bella insisted.

"She's right. I don't wanna go there anymore. I don't have any friends there besides my siblings and I can see them at home. It's been getting bad for a while now. Sam told Leah that he and Angela would watch out for me if I transferred to Forks. They said there are other gay kids there. I think I would be happier there. And safer," Willie pleaded.

And so, the grown-ups discussed it. To us, it felt like running away from the problem. The other boy should have to answer for his behavior. And I didn't understand how a community that could openly accept our polyamorous family could also openly shun our gay son. It hurt my heart.

But it was a small community and if that was one thing that they weren't ready to face, maybe it _was _in Willie's best interest to change schools.

The world was changing and I hoped that one day, being gay wouldn't still have the stigma it did. But we couldn't change the future by wanting it to be different. It would only change by teaching future generations to accept others for who they are. Which was what we díd with our kids and what they would do with theirs. We just had to hope that others would do the same.

After talking it over, we reluctantly agreed to let Willie transfer to Forks. There were only two weeks left of his grade ten year. So, for grade eleven, he would have a fresh start in a new space. We could only pray that things would be better. Little did we know it would be the beginning of all kinds of huge changes for our family. For our community. And eventually, for our world.

* * *

**AN: Well, that's it for Family Album!**

**I will post a teaser when Part Three: Uniting the Alphas begins posting. It should be soon!**

**As promised, here are all the kids' names and faceclaims, organized by household!**

**Blackswan Household:**

**Leah (LeeLee) = (canon) Julia Jones**

**Rachel (RaeRae) = (canon) Tanaya Beatty**

**Rebecca (Becks) = Tristin Mays**

**William (Willie) = (Young) Eddie Spears**

**Seth = (Older than canon) BooBoo Stewart**

**Isabella (Bella) = Madison Cheeatow**

**George Charles = Blair Redford**

**Julia = (Terminator Genisys) Emilia Clarke**

**Jacob (Jakey) = (Young) Douglas Booth**

**Suzanne (Suzie) = Barbara Palvin**

**Henry = Aiden Andrews**

**Uley Household:**

**Sam = (canon) Chaske Spencer**

**Atarik = Siddharth Nigam**

**Mira = Miika Whiskeyjack**

**Emery = Sienna Agudong**

**Uley/Clearwater Household:**

**Clara = Taysha Fuller**

**Edmond = Nathan Kress**

**Harold = Aramis Knight**

**Allen = Marcel Ruiz**

**Webber Household:**

**Angela = (canon) Christian Serratos**

**Isaac = Xolo Maridueña**

**Joshua = Sladen Peltier**

**Ateara Household:**

**Quil = (canon) Tyson Houseman**

**Molly Mae = Alison Fernandez**

**Littlesea Household:**

**Collin = (canon) Brayden Jimmie**


	13. Teaser

**AN: Part Three is now posting!**

**Thanks to cargrl, ****souvikkundu0017, and twi nana for reviewing last chapter, and to all who follow, fave, review, and read these stories!**

**Here is a teaser! Please add Poly World: Uniting the Alphas to your following list because this is the last update for this one!**

* * *

**Willie's POV**

After I said goodbye to my mom and sister and got inside, I signed in at the office. The woman behind the desk, Ms. Cope, gave me my info packet for first-time students and I thanked her and headed off to find my locker. Then I followed the map to find my homeroom. Finally, in homeroom, I saw Sam. He waved me over.

"Willie, hey, man, good to see you. Steve, this is Willie, he's new to the school but our dads are best friends so we grew up together." Sam explained, doing the weird handshake thing he always did.

It might have been an overtly masculine gesture from anyone else, but from Sam it just made me feel like I was a part of the inner circle, even if I didn't know who his circle really was yet.

"Dude! Good to meet you. Any friend of Sam's, Man." The boy named Steve smiled. He was undeniably attractive but not really my type. He was blonde and looked like a surfer. Definitely a jock. Not that jocks were bad, they just didn't tend to be big fans of mine.

"Likewise." I nodded and smiled politely.

The homeroom teacher began speaking and soon it was time to leave for our first class.

"I have Math, what do you have?" I asked Sam nervously as we headed out of the room.

"Oh sweet, me too!" He grinned, looking at my timetable. "You'll love Mr. Parsons, he's cool. Last year I had Varner and he was kind of a jerk, but Parsons is really decent, he also teaches Automotives so I had him for that last year," he assured me as we headed to Math.

Well, that was a relief, at least.

We arrived in class and found seats together. We were the first ones and nearly everyone who came in after us seemed to know Sam. That was a good sign.

And the teacher went easy on us for the first day which was good too. Math was my best class, so I wasn't worried, but still, having a nice teacher right out of the gate made me less nervous.

"Sorry I'm late, Teach. I had trouble finding the right class." A voice said partway through the class period. I looked up from the textbook we were supposed to skim through to get an idea of the material.

"Ah yes, you must be Cullen comma Emmett?" Mr. Parsons nodded, motioning him to the last available seat, near the back.

If I had thought Steve from homeroom looked like a jock, this Emmett guy was the epitome of one. Every inch of his physique screamed football player. He was big and burly with a dopey, youthful look about him. And he was so good looking he made Steve look like a guppy fish. But again, in spite of looking like a Calvin Klein ad, he really wasn't my type.

Not that I was looking. I really didn't need any distractions. But I wasn't blind. I still knew eye candy when I saw it. And it was possible to admire without attempting to sample.

Not that any of the guys here would be sampleable anyway. Most of them would be straight or at least presenting themselves that way. So it was the safest thing to just assume they all were until I found out otherwise.

After everyone managed to stop staring at Emmett, and the girls all picked their chins up off the floor, it was back to our textbooks until the bell rang.

* * *

**AN: There's a sample to wet your appetite! Now go read the rest!**


End file.
